The amazing journey of the VTC

The Internshala Virtual Training Centre (an online platform where you can learn various technologies and skills delivered through state of the art technology) or VTC, as it’s popularly known, is growing at a fast pace and increasingly becoming popular among students all over India. The journey of the VTC has never been narrated before, so we considered it as an opportunity to encapsulate the experiences of the team while creating and developing VTC, from its incorporation to the greatly admired present model, and the vision for its future.

Every initiative starts with an idea, an underlying motive or an unmet need. Accordingly, what was the foundation, the stimulus for the creation of VTC? Vikram Shah, Manager – Virtual Training Centre at Internshala, speaks – “The kind of expectations industries have from graduates in today’s world and what they are taught in college are very different, and the gap is generally bridged by industrial trainings, classroom trainings etc. that students sign up for during their summer breaks, winter vacations or even during semester when they have spare time. However, classroom training programs are expensive (especially if you add up the cost of living in a new city plus daily commute) and inconvenient at times (Would you really want to go to attend classes in sultry summer or chilling winter). Moreover, these classroom trainings are usually available in larger cities only making them inaccessible for students from remote areas. We sensed a problem which needed to be solved, bearing in mind the vast number of students who can benefit from the optimal use of technology. And hence originated the idea of VTC where we wanted to deliver such trainings completely online where students could learn anytime, anywhere from the comfort of their homes or hostel rooms”.

The VTC, currently offers beginners’ training programs in Web Development, Core Java and Hacking and has become very popular not only because of its ease of learning, but also because of the constant mentoring and support provided throughout the course. A student can avail the service of live chat or forum support as part of the doubt solving mechanism. The content of each of the course has been developed by experts who are not only well-versed in their fields but also have a good understanding of how to teach the subject to a beginner. Not to mention the state-of-the-art Try Yourself feature, which allows students to practically implement what they learned in real time. Students can easily correct their mistakes and practice as many times as they want from the warmth of their homes. And all this at a very affordable price, designed especially for students.

This is what some of the students who took the VTC Web Development course have to say about it –

The technology used on VTC is uber- cool. So, what was the most difficult part of developing VTC? Tells Varun, the team member who has coded the platform “Developing the IDE (Interactive Development Environment), where students can code with in the browser without having to install any set up etc., for the VTC was quite challenging and interesting. We had to make sure we left it open so that the students could write their code, execute and practice, but we had to take into account security issues that accompany such technology. We are one of the very few platforms that allow students to test PHP and MySQL codes on the browser and are still extremely secure.”

What began as a single course module has now grown to 3 courses in less than 6 months. Currently VTC is offering beginners’ training programs in Web Development, Core Java and Hacking – all of which have been received very well by college students as they embark upon to learn new skills and advance their careers.

The VTC team has exciting plans for the future. Tells Vikram, “We most certainly do not want to stop here. We plan to have as many as 20 courses for the VTC by summer 2014, where students can learn industry-specific technology across domains (Programming, Electronics, Finance etc.) which will help them in their careers. We would like VTC to be a platform that is engaging and fun. It should be like playing a game or solving a puzzle rather than a classroom and a certification from VTC should mean that the student really knows the skill”.

Here’s wishing the VTC many more years of success :-). If you want a free demo of any of the current training programs being offered by VTC, or want to enroll, visit – http://vtc.internshala.com/