The Grameenphone Academy Night, a celebration programme hosted by Grameenphone Academy, was held in the capital recently. The event was organised to award the winners of the competition "Grameenphone Academy – Cisco Network Academy 4IR Learning Challenge," hosted by Grameenphone Academy, a free open online learning platform. Last year, the Grameenphone Academy rolled out on-campus town halls at nine universities and organised an intra-university competition based on courses offered – cybersecurity, the internet of things, and python. There were three competitions per university in different categories along with one for Female@STEM. The universities are AUST, IUT, ULAB, UIU, IUBAT, DIU, BracU and NSU. "The Grameenphone Academy is one of multiple initiatives from the Grameenphone house, designed to upskill people to become smart citizens. I thank the academicians for giving us access to the industry and joining hands with us in operating this academy's activities," Grameenphone CEO Yasir Azman said. The Grameenphone Academy was kicked off in May 2022 to build a bridge between academia, industry, and students. It also aims to balance the gender gap by emphasising upskilling of female students. To date, 45,000 students enrolled from 170+ universities and colleges, and 23,000 students, including 8,200 female ones, completed certification from this academy. The academy currently offers 14 courses, developed by Grameenphone's in-house experts and in partnership with the Cisco Network Academy, Amarischool, Creative IT, and Bright Skills, on career readiness, entrepreneurship, future industry skills, freelancing with WordPress, and essential digital skills.