Mumbai: With the pandemic changing the job scenario and opening up newer avenues, upskilling has become a necessity and this year, 79 per cent of the people interviewed said they are planning to upskill, according to the report.
As jobs in newer domains soared high in 2021, more than 70 per cent of people chose to upskill to grab new opportunities, according to the ‘Upskilling Outlook in India 2022’, a report by edtech company Great Learning.
An even higher intent towards upskilling is being seen in 2022, with the emergence of newer domains like Web3.0, metaverse and NFTs, among others, 79 per cent of the respondents still plan to upskill in 2022 with another 11 per cent are on the fence, it added.
The ‘Upskilling Outlook in India 2022’ report is based on internal data from Great Learning. A survey was conducted by Pyxis with about 1,000 respondents from cities, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune. Respondents were from industries such as information technology (IT) and business process management (BPM), banking, education and training, and automobiles, among others.
The report also showed that professionals from IT, banking, education and training, healthcare and consulting are most keen to upskill in 2022.
The IT, BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) and consulting sectors continue to dominate due to increased digital transformation and the dynamic nature of the business, it said.
With the continued pandemic, professionals from healthcare and education are also looking to upskill in data and cutting-edge tech skills, it added.
Meanwhile, data science, artificial intelligence (AI) and software development were the top domains for upskilling, said the report.
Over 43 per cent of the respondents expressed intent in data-focused domains — data science, AI, machine learning and analytics, it added.
Professionals from Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad showed the highest intent towards upskilling in 2021 and 2022 and among the bigger cities, people in Mumbai were the most invested in upskilling this year, followed by Delhi and Hyderabad.
However, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad are still the top-most cities when it comes to demand for tech and data domains as observed in Great Learning’s platform data.
Small-towns jump on the bandwagon as Nagpur, Ernakulam, Mysore, Jaipur and Indore shine as the fastest-growing cities.
With the rise of remote working and online hiring, tier-II and -III cities have also shown a huge intent for upskilling with Nagpur, Ernakulam, Mysore, Jaipur and Indore topping the list of fastest-growing cities, it added.
The report found that both men and women showed an equal interest in upskilling this year. However, being busy with household chores and family responsibilities is still a major hurdle towards learning for women as compared to men.
“Last year set new benchmarks when it came to online learning and upskilling, in India and globally. It looks like this interest to learn is only going to sustain and grow in the coming year as well,” Great Learning co-founder Hari Krishnan Nair said.
The increasing traction and adoption of upskilling among smaller Indian cities is an indicator of how geographical barriers are being broken, he noted.
“From an employment perspective, there are still lakhs of unfilled vacancies due to the scarcity of skilled talent and with most companies adopting digital transformation, the paths to grow for ‘skilled employees’ are unparalleled,” Nair added.
PTI
