You Don't have to prepare for the Future of Work Alone

In 2019, I had alot of career and learning goals. Around this time last year, one of the thoughts that crossed my mind was:

"2019 would be the year that I conquer everything related to Artificial Intelligence, Data science, Machine Learning yen yen yen"

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It was like one of those new year resolution kind of things when you feel so pumped up at the beginning of the year and at the time you made the resolution.

So there and then, I searched for as many online courses related to data science as possible and tried to register for them. I found a lot of free ones, but I also noticed that the really in-depth and interesting courses were not cheap!. I saw course prices that ranged from $50 - $300. Because of the prices, "mo ya look away".

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Anyways, I registered for the free courses and looked forward to learning as much as I could...

Fast forward to the end of 2019 and I hadn't completed any of the online courses I had registered for since March.

This is how shocked I was

No, it wasn't because I was lazy, but I think it was because these online courses were not as interactive as I wanted them to be.

The courses were video-based, so I would always do night plan to watch the videos of the courses, but I noticed I usually got bored and slept off at the middle of videos (maybe I was actually lazy though 😪).

Also, the concepts that were being taught were actually very complex that it wasn't easy for me to understand at once, so I had to keep watching a video in repeat, which made it really boring.

Don't let anyone deceive you with Buzz words that these concepts are simple- Data science, Machine learning and Artificial intelligence concepts are not easy to understand.

I thought I was the only one that experienced these problems until I started talking to friends and colleagues. Turns out alot of people experience this problem too.

Now let me hit you with some stats.

1) The average E-learning platform has a course completion rate of 5-15% which is majorly due to the fact that learning on these platforms is not so interactive, and most learners lose interest midway.

2) Because E-Learning is a "more convenient" way to learn skills necessary for the "future of work", demand for online courses has increased. And you know when demand increases, price also does. The cost of elearning courses is rising 8 times faster than minimum wages and salaries, according to Forbes.com.


So one day, I thought what if there was a way to make online learning more affordable and interactive for people like me? I spoke to a friend about the idea and we decided to build a platform called Xchange.


Xchangelearn, or Xchange for shorts is actually an idea I have had for a while, but I just didn't have the wherewithal to kickstart yet.


So basically, Xchange leverages on price-sharing, data analytics and community building in an attempt to make online learning cheaper, faster and more interactive.

The idea behind the platform was to simply create a way for anyone (especially University students) to find learning partners in their location based on a shared learning interests.

So here is how it works:

1) Users create accounts with information containing their skills, location and learning interests.

2) Using the search feature, users can find learning partners within their location with a shared learning interest.

3) Learning partners get to share the cost of learning and serve as accountability partners to each other. Your learning partner can also explain stuff you don't really understand to you and vice-versa.

4)At the end of the learning process, learning partners get to rate and review each other, and also automatically become professional acquaintances, in a way.

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And that's honestly one of the reasons I feel Xchange matters. It not only provides a means for people to learn together, but also makes it possible for students to build a strong professional network through a learning relationship, because these days, a person's network is truly actually their net worth.

To find out more about Xchange and to get started with using it, kindly click the button below:

It would also mean a lot to me if you created an account 😟

I believe that Xchange can help you achieve all your learning goals for the year, and if it doesn't do that, it would atleast help you find new friends with which you share the same interests.

I'd like to know what you think

If you have any thoughts or comments, don't hesitate to share with me in the comment section below.

Thank you for reading and Happy New Year!