Nearly 79 per cent of working professionals, including freshers, say they intend to upskill to grab new opportunities, according to the ‘Upskilling Outlook in India 2022’, a report by edtech company Great Learning. As the nature of work evolves, the trends indicate growth in awareness and desire to upskill in today’s latest technologies.
An even higher intent towards upskilling is being seen in 2022 with the emergence of newer domains like web 3.0, metaverse, and NFTs. 62 per cent people still plan to upskill after returning to offices.
City-wise upskilling intent
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.
Working pros in Mumbai were the most invested in upskilling, followed by Delhi and Hyderabad. However, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad are still among the top-most cities when it comes to demand for tech and data domains as observed.
With the rise of remote working and online hiring, tier 2 and tier 3 cities have also shown a huge intent for upskilling with Nagpur, Ernakulam, Mysore, Jaipur and Indore topping the list of fastest-growing cities.
Domains in demand
IT, banking, education and training, healthcare and consulting are the top five domains among professionals who want to upskill in 2022. The IT, BFSI and consulting sectors continue to dominate due to increased digital transformation and the dynamic nature of the business. With the continued pandemic, professionals from healthcare and education are also looking to upskill in data and cutting-edge tech skills.
65 per cent of freshers are keen to enter the corporate world and are upskilling to bag a new career opportunity. In both 2021 and 2022, 52 per cent of professionals with work experience of 6-8 years upskilled to grow their career within their organisation. Moreover, brushing up on new skills and personal interests was the top reason to upskill for 62 per cent of professionals with work experience of 9+ years.
Many big and small organisations are in the process of building a reskilling and upskilling culture within their existing workforce. But only 35 per cent of people reported access to customised training programmes from their employers.
Both men and women showed an equal interest in upskilling in 2022. However, being busy with household chores and family responsibilities is still a major hurdle towards learning for women as compared to men as 81 per cent of women cited being busy with family and household work as a barrier.