Re-skill — a startup that offers adaptive IT learning using AI

Farrukh Umarov, city — Dubai, founder of Re-skill , @farrukh_umari

How It All Began

I am a co-founder of the EdTech startup Re-skill, which is considered a spin-off product of the organization ilmhona. ilmhona is a skills accelerator that has been operating for six years, where we teach programming skills and help people find jobs in programming and design.

At Re-skill, we use AI to create a unique educational product. Another co-founder of our startup is Said, a computer vision engineer and specialist in VR and AR. Our partner Mukhtasham is a machine learning engineer with strong technical skills.

We wanted to create a unique product that would allow people to acquire skills based on their preferences and goals. We decided to use a personalized adaptive approach so that everyone could successfully complete their training. One of the main problems in online education is that people do not finish courses. Additionally, there are courses that do not take into account the individual needs of students.

We are confident that our product will help solve these problems and provide educational opportunities not only to hundreds but also to millions of people around the world.

Target Audience

The target audience of the Re-skill project includes two main profiles. The first is those who are starting their learning journey from scratch. We provide these people with the opportunity to learn online based on their own skills and preferences.

The other student profile consists of people who have some foundation but are not quite ready for employment. For them, we are developing a job-centric feature — training focused on labor market requirements. We analyze job requirements and compare them with students' current skills. Then, we create an individualized learning plan that helps fill gaps in their knowledge and skills. This plan is not just an introduction to the topic but is tailored to the specific student and based on their existing knowledge and job requirements. In this way, we connect these two groups of students and help them prepare for future employment, including resume and interview preparation.

We are launching the Re-skill project in the Central Asian region but are also considering expanding to other markets in the future.

Acceleration Programs

Last year, when our project was still in its early stages, we went through the Prosperity Cup acceleration program by Accelerator Prosperity. Thanks to this program, we were able to develop a concrete value proposition from our ideas and turn them into a product. At the preliminary idea stage, the main result was packaging our ideas into a single product.

Challenges

One of the main challenges is assembling the right team. In the case of the ilmhona project, we managed to form a strong team that shares our mission. Another problem is the distance between team members, which hinders interaction and motivation. It can also be difficult to evaluate ideas and beliefs.

But challenges stimulate our growth and motivate us to move forward. Building a startup is not an easy task.

Achievements

With the Re-skill project, we have just started, but we have already launched the product. This is a big step forward; time will tell what comes next!

Plans

Our goal by the end of the year is to successfully test hypotheses, add useful features, and expand our product to other markets. Our main focus is on the successful launch and implementation of hypotheses because if we can do this from scratch, further scaling will be easier.

We also plan to attract investors to scale the project.