Holding a training session for a large group of employees posted across Bangladesh would be a backbreaking task for any company headquartered in Dhaka.

To make it a success, the firms have to bring their staff members together, manage their accommodation, food and other facilities, arrange the venue, develop training curriculum, and put in place many other things.

Now e-learning platforms have come up as saviour of the organisers of such events. Summit Communications Ltd, a local telecom networking provider, is taking advantage of the platforms to improve the skills of their employees.

Summit is taking the service of sudoksho.com—an e-learning platform—which has designed an exclusive course for its employees.

The company plans to organise a session on the code of conduct for its 500 employees who are stationed at different locations across the country. The virtual training will focus on helping the participants carry out duties maintaining the highest level of personal and corporate integrity.

The course will definitely save valuable working hours and a huge amount of money as it will bring all the employees under a common virtual platform, said Arif-Al Islam, chief executive officer of Summit Communications.

“The innovation is giving us comfort,” he said.

The course will be put on a platform, and employees with access to it can take part at their convenience.

Sudoksho.com has also added an interactive feature to the session so that employees can ask questions and give opinions. The course instructor will respond immediately to help the participants.

A product of Enroute International Ltd, sudoksho.com, is already running two certified courses for the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management: one on credit management and the other on trade services.

“Actually these are digital innovations and by using digital devices people can go through a course and adapt to the changing world,” said Abu Daud Khan, CEO of Enroute.

The company has been engaged in physical training for the last eight years and has now put it on the digital platform. People are taking different kinds of training to enhance their expertise, Khan said.

Repto, another e-learning platform, has so far developed 63 courses and is mainly running individual's capacity-building courses, mostly focusing on tertiary level students.

By paying a nominal fee, students can learn different capacity-building courses from home and prepare for corporate jobs, said Istiyak Sheyam, CEO of Repto Education Centre.

Sheyam developed the idea in 2015 just after his higher secondary examination. A year later, he received investment from Grameenphone Accelerator.

Now, about 45,000 unit courses have been completed using the platform. Initially, it was very tough for Repto to sell online courses.

“A good number of the participants have already got jobs,” said Sheyam, who also attended more than 50 globally reputed online courses.

He said the online course is a new concept in Bangladesh, but there is no other cost-effective, less time-consuming, and effective way to enhance the skill of the youth.

Online platform 10 Minute School is offering comprehensive study solutions for different grades and has received huge popularity.

In 2015, Ayman Sadiq founded the platform and at the time it was the only site in Bangladesh that allowed students to learn from tutorials and live classes, practise from quizzes and model tests and monitor progress.

Soon after its launch, Robi came up with support and is helping the site to thrive. In December, the platform scooped the top award of an Asia-Pacific regional competition.

Shyamoli Akbar, a professor of the Institute of Education and Research at the University of Dhaka, hailed the current wave of e-learning.

“Undoubtedly, this is a very positive trend and we need to expand to achieve the best possible result,” she said.

The government has an open e-learning platform 'Muktopaath' and this has been developed for eight lakh teachers.

Some other platforms such as Khan Academy, Jaago Foundation's online school, Amar Pathshala, and Lekha Pora BD which are also getting traction.

Khan of Sudoksho said the country has limited resources and lacks qualified teachers. “That's why technology can play a huge part to make learning easier and affordable.”

“Through e-learning, the country will get a properly trained workforce within a short time.”