In these pandemic times, practically everyone and everything is moving online. But when UpSkill TT founder Farishta Mohammed noticed both a scarcity and scattering of online courses in the country she decided a single platform was needed.

Upskilltt.com is a zoom-integrated website and serves as an eco-system for instructors and clients of fitness, academics, leisure and development. Currently, more than 20 instructors and learning centres offer their courses and events on the website with each having been vetted first "to ensure the highest standards of operation."

Mohammed discussed the genesis of the platform during a recent interview with Newsday.

Getting up on entrepreneurship

She explained she has always worked in the corporate world but always wanted to get into entrepreneurship.

"It is very difficult to make that step from one to the other, to move from regular, structured life to that of an entrepreneur. And it's very difficult to balance both."

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But Mohammed had been thinking about what entrepreneurial endeavour she could get involved in.

"What can I come up with? What would be new, unique and different that I can bring to market? I had ideas, but nothing stuck."

Some of her ideas were very labour-intensive and time-intensive, and she was never prepared to leave her full-time job. Mohammed has a first degree in economics, a masters in business administration, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants certification, and she continued to study.

"I always had a real passion for development and learning new skills. I feel like if I let my mind stay stagnant too long, it would turn to mush. So to stay ahead of the curve, I have been involved in continuous development. I enjoyed those challenges.

"And part of me wanted to bring something to the market similar to my own credo."

A different kind of classroom

With 2020 and the pandemic Mohammed began to notice people migrating to online learning – by force, but also: "I saw a shift in preference, with a lot of people actually preferring online learning. They like the idea of no traffic, and being in their own space and on their own time. They don't have the hassle of physically going to a class, but get the same quality education they would get in a traditional setting."

So Mohammed did her research and found online course platforms in the US such as Skillshare and Udemy.

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"A lot of people, including me, would like to be taught by a local person, to connect with a person who speaks your same language and the same dialect, so you can understand them so much better. So I decided to do something like this for the local market."

She noted a lot of Trinis like live interaction and chatting with other people in a class, but this feature was not available on the sites Skillshare or Udemy, as all classes are pre-recorded. Mohammed decided to have a website with a combination of both li