The demand for cloud skills is growing for tech professionals. According to ACG’s State of Cloud Report, 80% of people said that a higher salary was a direct result of cloud certification.
This shows how important they are for the growth of an individual candidate. Also, the reason why most tech hiring managers would prefer an employee having cloud skills in their skillset.
Now, it requires the students to have enough knowledge and practice to clear the certification exams. And, there are only a few online platforms that are there to help the students to prepare for the same.
In this brand story, we are featuring QwikSkills, a platform that is helping students get cloud-ready. We will be looking at the idea that pushed the founders to start the platform and what vision they hold. So, let us get started with their story:
About QwikSkills
QwikSkills is a one-stop practice platform for cloud & tech certification exams. QwikSkills helps IT professionals clear cloud certification exams in their first attempt.
They are purely a platform to help professionals practice for these examinations. The platform offers a real-exam simulator, practice tests, practice materials, detailed answer explanations, and hands-on cloud labs created by their certified subject matter experts.
The users get the proven advantage of hands-on experience and learn-by-practice at scale. Qwikskills’ hands-on cloud labs help professionals practice in a real-time cloud environment. They aim to enable anyone, anywhere, to become a cloud-certified professional and achieve a brighter future.
The platform bridges the gap between learning and getting certified. It enhances learning by effectively practicing with domain-based questions, detailed answers, and hands-on cloud labs.
💡 QwikSkills’ Mission: To help people reskills for a better future.
🎯 QwikSkills’ Vision: To become a one-stop destination for all practice needs for cloud & other tech certifications.
🏷️ Their Tagline: Learn By Practice
About The Founders
Varun Mahajan is a certified Google Cloud Architect & network Engineer with 19 years of experience helping companies manage their web presence.
Harit Verma has a core competency in product development from his past experiences in Motorola, Samsung, and a few startups.
QwikSkills’ Story
In 2020, when Varun was preparing for his Google Cloud certifications, he felt a need for an effective and easy-to-use practice test platform before going for a real exam. Most certification aspirants were using Coursera, Udemy, and a few other platforms to clear out doubts but there was still a gap.
Cloud professionals looking to get certified often lack sufficient practice to earn cloud certifications in their first attempt. Available platforms were primarily focused on learning with a long video library with either little or no emphasis on practicing.
He discussed this problem with friends & colleagues at multiple channels and forums. After due discussion, Varun & Harit realized the need to build a new smart test platform that is easy & effective and completes the learning experience.
Both started to build the QwikSkills platform in November 2020. At present, QwikSkills is set to bring a fresh perspective to practicing for certification exams.
💡 Major Challenges Faced During Initial Days
The team had to struggle to find and hire certified cloud talent as there is a cloud talent gap with respect to demand. One more challenge came after the initial validation of MVP when they had to market and scale the platform.
How The Platform Works And What Is Their Growth?
QwikSkills is a subscription-based practice platform offering monthly & annual plans, which includes unlimited access to all certifications and practice materials. Users can create a free account and start practicing free practice tests.
Accordingly, they can upgrade to paid subscription plans. QwikSkills charges its customers for monthly and annual subscriptions.
QwikSkills is seeing a 400% increase in growth month-on-month. Total free trial users crossed 2000. To follow community-led learning approach their Telegram channel is now 9000+ members and growing in a short time.
💰 QwikSkills’ Funding: The platform is backed by 100x.VC.
🏆 QwikSkills’ Competitors: There are direct and indirect competitors in this space for the company and they are dealing with the competition with quality services. One direct competitor is Whizlabs while indirect competitors are Udemy, A Cloud Guru, Plural Sight, Coursera, etc.