The pandemic disrupted the global job market in the last couple of years. The only way someone could survive such a major shift in industry demands is through upskilling. Fortunately, the changing job scenario has opened up new opportunities and because of this, upskilling has become a necessity. 79% of professionals (including freshers) plan to upgrade their skills in 2024. New domains such as blockchain, cybersecurity, Web 3.0, and NFTs have aided the need for upskilling.
The Upskilling Outlook in India Report highlights the various trends, insights, and thought-provoking numbers that the upskilling space has seen through Great Learning’s platforms and independent consumer research. There is a significant increase in an intent to upskill for a better career.
The results of this report are based on internal data from Great Learning and a survey conducted by Pyxis. The survey was conducted with around 1000 respondents from cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi, and Pune. Most of the respondents are from IT and BPM, Banking, Education and Training, Automobiles, and more, in the domains of Data Science, AI, Software Development, Analytics, Management, Sales, and Design.
Report Highlights:
- Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Software Development are the most preferred domains.
- Professionals from metropolitan cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad show the highest intent up-skill in 2024. However, tier-2 cities, such as Ernakulam, Jaipur, Nagpur, and Indore, have emerged as the fastest-growing cities that have shown a demand for upskilling courses.
- 62% of respondents believe that going back to the office will not affect their plan to upskill
Education & Training, Banking, IT, Healthcare, and Consulting are the top five industries among professionals who wish to upskill. The BFSI, IT, and Consulting sectors continue to dominate due to an increase in digital transformation.
The Upskilling report also found that men and women have shown an equal interest in upgrading their skills in 2024. However, 81% of females see being busy with family and household work as a hurdle towards learning in 2024.
There are several organizations that are in the process of building an upskilling culture within their organization. Currently, only 35% of employees say that their company offers training programs. These programs lead to a highly efficient workforce within the organization. With a renewed focus on equipping employees with future-ready skill sets, organizations are increasingly looking at helping their workforce realize their full potential while rounding off the employees with knowledge additional to their primary professional expertise.
The job market today has become very dynamic as organizations are moving towards new technologies, adopting strategies to utilize data, and reinventing the traditional methods across functions. Therefore, it becomes essential for professionals to constantly upgrade their skills and stay updated with the changes in the industry.
Most of the in-demand occupations of today did not even exist a decade ago. This justifies the importance of upskilling regularly to stay relevant in the job market. In this article, we have elaborated on how you can approach upskilling and a few tips to help you along the way.
What is Upskilling?
The term upskilling refers to learning new skills to keep up with the demands of the job the market. It is crucial to bridge the gap between demand and availability of skilled professionals across domains.
Digital transformation has been the biggest trend for a long time and is morphing the job roles. The processes are improving to contribute to better ways of working yielding better results. In such a scenario, the mindset to constantly upskill will take professionals a long way in their respective careers.
The need to upskill
Upskilling is a constant process and should be that a professional is doing always, irrespective of the position one is in their career. Some of the reasons to keep constantly learning are:
Gain skills that employers are seeking
Businesses are always evolving and therefore their needs are also constantly changing. Keeping a lookout for in-demand skills and upskilling accordingly will make you a more attractive candidate to employers. It will help you stand out and ahead of the pool of applications for the same role.
Demonstrate adaptability
The change is the only constant and to survive the change and excel, one must embrace it. Employers seek this quality in their prospective employees. A commitment towards upskilling shows the willingness to constantly learn new things and adapt to new technologies is highly appreciated and sought after by recruiters.
Better performance at the job
Upskilling will help professionals to perform better in their roles and move up the ladder quickly. It enables a satisfying career and fast growth. Technological developments improve efficiency, reduce errors, and are designed to make jobs easier. Upskilling to these technological solutions helps professionals to align their tasks to organizational goals and hence perform well.
Apart from meeting career goals, upskilling also helps professionals build confidence. Learning new things and having a wide spectrum of knowledge boosts self-esteem.
Career transitions
One key benefit of upskilling comes with career transitions. When professionals reach a dead-end or feel demotivated in their current role, upskilling helps them shift careers. It helps them draw attention to their transferable skills and learn concepts that are completely new but interesting to them.
How to Upskill
These are the steps to approach upskilling:
- Identify skills you need to learn – The first step is to identify the skill gap you are trying to bridge. Whether you aim at a career transition, a promotion, or applying for a new job, it will require certain specific skills or certifications.
- Look out for learning opportunities – Being a working professional, it would be best if you look out for part-time learning opportunities. Other options are taking up full-time classroom courses or online certification programs. Great Learning provides certification courses across the domains including artificial intelligence and machine learning, data science and business analytics, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and more. Great Learning Academy is a platform that provides short free courses across tech and business domains.
- Utilize online resources – Upskilling should not always come with a cost, especially if you are going for beginner level courses. Make the most of the free online resources available to understand the domain better and then go for more advanced courses that are the paid ones. You could sign up for newsletters, subscribe to blogs, and follow industry experts on social media to know more about your domain.
What is Upskilling and why do you need to pay more attention to it than ever?
Artifical IntelligenceAs per the latest NASSCOM report, up to 40 percent of the estimated 4 million workforce in India would undergo re-skilling over the next 5 years.
You must have come across articles blaring data points like the one above in the past few months and would’ve brushed them aside conveniently, but if you are planning to make 2018 a milestone year in terms of Career Growth it’s time you took the latest corporate buzzword seriously. ‘Upskilling’ has arrived and it is here to stay.
In light of the layoffs witnessed by the IT industry last year Reskilling/Upskilling has become the new mantra to success, and for the all the right reasons. But before we get into why it is super important to upskill yourself more than ever now let’s understand what upskilling really entails.
What is Upskilling?
Upskilling refers to improving the skillset of professionals, usually through training to enable them to perform better in their jobs and help them progress through the company into various job roles and opportunities. Upskilling opportunities can be provided using a number of formats, ranging from short courses to getting higher qualifications or gaining certifications through part-time or full-time programs.
Read Also: Steps to get your employer to sponsor your upskilling
Here are the top reasons Why Upskilling is important for you now more than ever:
- It helps you keep up with latest Industry Demand & trends– Learning new skills or improving existing skillsets ensures that you are up to pace with the shift in trends your domain is witnessing. As an example take The Union Budget 2018 and its clear focus on AI, Big Data and Robotics and their application in the Digital Economy. We can clearly see career opportunities are set to rise exponentially in these domains within the next 2-3 years. So if you were to acquire a new skill or develop expertise in a new domain, Analytics, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence or IOT could be a great option.
- You can increase your pay-check in no-time- According to a staffing solutions company, TeamLease Services, India will face a demand-supply gap of 2 lakh data analytics professionals by 2020. This lag between demand and supply exists not only in India but is a global phenomenon. As per the estimates of McKinsey, the gap between supply and requisite demand for analytics skills in the US will reach 50-60% by 2018. With the industry all set to witness such a huge demand gap you can utilize the opportunity to get a lucrative pay package in the respective domain. A sure shot way to develop a new competency in it would be to take up an industry-oriented program focusing on a new-age skill. You might have to invest a year or 6 months with such a course but the gains in terms of better employment opportunities and rise in pay scale will all be worth it.
- You can future-proof your career– More technological advancements sometimes translate to more and more people being replaced at their jobs. A recent threat to millions of jobs is posed by Automation and Artifical Intelligence, although the number of jobs that will be automated due to AI is debatable it is always better to future-proof your career by developing new competencies. It is hence beneficial to become an irreplaceable asset to your organization by constantly proving that you have the grit and enthusiasm to learn new things and stay updated.
- Enable a successful career transition– In case you are planning to transition into a new role or enter a new domain altogether, Upskilling will help you facilitate the shift with much more ease. A program or course that enables you to build a body of work through industry-based projects will surely be helpful in tackling interviews with prospective employers with confidence and will display domain knowledge. Look for a program which has a good mix of industry participation which will allow you to network with industry experts and thought leaders and give you opportunities for referrals and endorsements.
The bottom line
With newer employment avenues opening up in the IT industry, the emphasis is slowly shifting from Scale to Skill. Technical competencies aligned with the Digital Economy are therefore in high demand. The time to explore new waters and ride the new wave is now. Re-skill or perish is the only way forward.
