Recently, the online learning platform – Coursera published a report based on the study they conducted on the state of skills that are in demand across continents. The report highlighted the top 10 skills that learners showed interest across business, technology and data science fields. In this post, I cherry-picked the information from the report that is relevant for India.
Firstly, let’s look at the numbers – coursera learners and top skills in India. Although, there are many MOOC platforms(Udemy, Khan Academy, Udacity, GUVI, edX, LinkedIn Learning) we extrapolate the figures from this study and assume the trends to be similar for other platforms too. The key takeaways are India has second lowest percentage of female learners amongst the 20 major economies studied despite being the second largest number of overall learners after United States. It was found that STEM course enrollments attributed a major proportion to the overall female learners percentage. We can expect the trend to continue in future too as these disciplines yield good career prospects and quick career progression. Read more about STEM in India here – article1, article2
Next important observation that we can make from the report is the global ranking of a nation for a particular skill/domain. The report classified the country on skill performance into four levels – Cutting Edge (top quartile), Competitive (51-75th percentile), Emerging (26-50th percentile) and Lagging (bottom quartile).
Look at the skills matrix and how India fared:
| Business (55) | Technology (66) | Data Science (66) | |
| Cutting Edge | Communications | Cloud Computing | |
| Competitive | Entrepreneurship, Finance, Leadership & Management | Operating Systems, Software Engineering, Theoretical Computer Science | Machine Learning, Mathematics |
| Emerging* | Accounting, Marketing, Sales, Strategy & Operations | Databases, Security Engineering, Web Development | Data Management, Data Visualization, Probability & Statistics |
| Lagging | Human Resources | Computer Programming, Mobile Development | Statistical Programming, Data Analysis |
*India is in Emerging skill state overall for all three disciplines mentioned in the table.
While the ideal plan is to upskill or reskill and move to the next level above the current level till we be on the cutting edge. We must thoroughly understand the ever changing global market particularly in technology and data sciences domains and then predict and prepare to equip ourselves with the skills of future. This also brings in the discussion about transferable and perishable skills and strategies to follow during skill development activity.
You can download the full report from here.
And, see you tomorrow !
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