Rajeeb is the founder of upskilling marketplace, Learnerbly, and recipient of an MBE. He is also the force behind several renowned ventures such as Enternships and Start-up Britain and has been named “among the most high profile" young entrepreneurs by the Financial Times. His earlier business, Start-up Britain, was launched by Prime Minister at the time, David Cameron, and was inspired by Start-Up America which was endorsed by Barack Obama. However, despite his repute, Rajeeb as an individual is disarmingly down-to-earth.
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Sitting down to talk amid a jet-set schedule, he shared with us: “the common thread throughout my career has been giving people the deserving opportunity. Empowerment is at the heart of what I do where workers are put in the driving seat. One of my first ventures, Enternships, helped students land their desired work placements with companies across the world. My latest platform, Learnerbly, is a global network that allows users to learn in the way that is the best for them, allowing them to be their optimal at work too.” Rajeeb’s Learnerbly is further contemporary, responding to the vocational gap in the market between the employee’s desire to grow and the necessity of businesses to adapt, especially in the advent of AI. The prolific CEO commented:
“The biggest perk of upskilling is personal development and a sense of fulfilment. This mutually drives the best performance and innovation of a business because workers are motivated as well as being maximally skilled, learning outside of current work & skillsets. You can pick what you wish to additionally explore to emerge as an altogether more well-rounded person. The impetus to create Learnerbly came of the consensus with colleagues that there was a certainly problem in the market in terms of keeping up with the advancement of society and tech.” Indeed, Rajeeb himself is well-versed in the disruptiveness of AI particularly, “experimenting with such new tools and adopting them moving forwards.” He has acquired new expertise over time to better his role as a CEO such as Coaching skills which enables him to better support his team members:
“Coaching is a skill that has allowed me to help guide employees as well as my own journey, which is important for any leader or manager. One must be able to ask the probing questions to better the outcome. The employee can effectively challenge and understand themselves in the process.” Here, Rajeeb also emphasised the importance of collaborating with workers and sense of community to sustain a strong business: “I view my place as primarily being able to serve other people: if you treat your employees well and they feel good, you can organically create a healthy and thriving company that will make waves. Generationally, people are not going to accept a one-sided, dictatorial type of dynamic.”
Indeed, Rajeeb’s foray into learning development coalesced at the grassroots where he wanted to passionately remedy an institutional disparity: “The start was being at school and wanting to facilitate the power of underrepresented voices in education. Rather than moan or feel defeated, I wanted to create a bridge and launched Student Voice. I then helped thousands of companies hire aspiring entrepreneurs who may not otherwise have had the opportunity via Enternships. The goal was always to make a positive social impact.” Finally, paradoxically, the secret to commercial success is not to solely focus on strengthening profit but more so the moral fibre: “the values of a company are paramount.”
How exactly does Learnerbly work?
Each client signed up will have their own budget to spend on personalised learning in the workplace. This is unique to the platform. You will have multimodal access to a variety of courses, books and online videos that you will use specifically, working with employers to better yourself. The process can be centralised or individual. You also have the option to see what your colleagues are learning so there is a whole social element to it.
Can you share some highlight moments?
Just generally that there has been a lot of incredible feedback from satisfied users and CEOs who can vouch for that!
Being well-equipped as a worker gives the employee more bargaining power and opportunity for ascension within the company and with employability at large: correct?
Yes, you are absolutely future-proofing yourself. There is opportunity to reinvent who you are.
