Earning his way into the industry by training individuals to become stars in the information technology field, the Chief Executive Officer of Trainocate Lanka, Zafarullah Hashim, received his advanced education in Singapore. He is an alumnus of APMI Kaplan University in Singapore. He also received an internal degree from the University of South Australia in International Business Administration.
According to the protagonist, shaping people’s lives, careers and educating them has been his dearest passion for a very long time. He was first involved in motor vehicle and trading businesses, after which he joined Avantus Singapore, to focus on human skills development. According to him, this is the turning point of his career journey. After spending over three years in Singapore, he decided to bring Avantus to Sri Lanka. He set up the organization from scratch, which eventually grew into a formidable force that had the honour of training individuals from Sri Lanka’s leading organizations, such as MAS, Brandix, Hemas, John Keells, etc. Zafarullah shares that throughout the time, Avantus managed considerably intense contact with Microsoft and Microsoft’s partners such as Zillione, H-One, TechOne Global, N-able, DMS, MIT and many more, who were all industry giants.
After a three year period of investment and development in Sri Lanka, Zafarullah joined H-One as their Head of Operations for Bangladesh and Maldives. During that time, he collaborated with universities and businesses to open doors of digitalization with ideas that aided in education. Soon after, he decided to join the family business, being involved with gems. He recalls the trips he took around the world on the gem business where he’d collect rough stones from Tanzania, Kenya and Madagascar to bring them back to Sri Lanka to give them the shine they deserve. He also gave a hand to his wife’s start-up, which is now an up and running business at its peak.
While he was happily involved with the family business, he received the offer from Trainocate, via an ex-colleague, to take over as the country manager for Sri Lanka. Having had an uncanny passion for educating and shaping lives, and an eye to shaping and shining rough stones, Zafarullah took the opportunity with both hands. Since his takeover, the company has managed to win several extremely valuable awards, including the Microsoft Worldwide award as a Microsoft Learning Partner of the year for 2021. He proudly recalls that the input of the Sri Lankan Unit played a significant role in winning this award, being the differentiating factor between the current year and past years. Trainocate was the first-ever Asian company to have won this award, emerging champions from over 4,400 entries. According to Zafarullah, the relationship formed with Microsoft, the alignment of the company’s goals with those of Microsoft, and the overall impact of the industry giant have all had a significant impact on Trainocate’s success.
Zafarullah believes that moving into cloud infrastructure would be the best in this new normal, given that Cloud enables you to do large-scale business at a lower cost while improving the service quality. In fact, cloud-hosted desktops help make both your business and IT leaner, faster, safer, and more productive. Artificial Intelligence is used across industries globally. Some of the industries which have delved deep into the field of AI to find new applications are E-commerce, Retail, Security and Surveillance. Sports Analytics, Manufacturing and Production, Automotive among others. Machine learning, analyzing engineering, and power BI. With proper guidance, one would be able to specialize in these essential areas, and he believes the technology sector will keep evolving with the situation, opening up many job opportunities.
With his extensive experience working with people worldwide, Zafarullah confidently claims that Sri Lankans shine bright the world over. He thinks of the individuals graduating from universities as stones that need to be cut and polished to bring out their true value and spark. One of the biggest challenges is to retain valuable Sri Lankan talent within the country while bridging the gap between ICT knowledge and what an individual needs to thrive in the industry. This is where the expertise of Trainocate comes in, allowing individuals to learn and thrive while guiding them towards their goals which are not limited to a certain role. “We want to show them the value of what they can achieve by being trained by us through a particular road map. It encourages them, gives them confidence, and provides the organization with the ROI in the investment they’ve made,” Zafarullah added. He has lined up the best trainers from overseas to see that those who trust Trainocate receive nothing but the best of their service.
Zafarullah shares that the company is rapidly reaching new heights by helping out with organizations going through a tough time and are in the transitioning period towards technology. Trainocate delivers well-informed and stable individuals who can provide their expertise towards the rise of these businesses. Trainocate has trained many blue-chip companies, along with their partners.“Our goal is to develop individuals on tools that are already available that they don’t know how to use,” Zafarullah added.
Being named as one of the top 20 IT training companies in the world and being named as Microsoft’s WorldWide best, AWS APAC Partner and Google APAC Partner, the team plans on reaching extraordinary heights. According to Zafarullah, seeing the success of the individuals they trained is always the biggest reward of all. Working hand in hand with Microsoft’s Global Skill Initiative program, Traincoate plans to upskill university graduates. Trainocate truly lives up to its word.
Zafarullah believes in a line that his father always told him, which he now believes to be the most valuable advice he has received… “Education is what remains after everything else is forgotten. When you have your knowledge, you don’t lose anything. No matter how the world changes. With education, you are safe.”