Demand for online training rises as job seekers attempt to remain competitive

Young people staying home during the pandemic have seized the chance to improve their job prospects, regardless of whether they are in work or not.

In late July, global online learning platform Udacity said its annual recurrent revenue for the first half of this year rose by 260 percent. This was due to heightened demand from businesses and government agencies looking to accelerate digital transformation, and people wanting to acquire technological skills.

The number of individuals using the platform each month in the first half of this year rose on average by more than 50 percent, the company said. It added there had been a fourfold weekly rise during this period for enrollments for its Nanodegree program－collaboration with industry partners on content development－following initiatives to assist laid-off workers.

Hisham Elaraby, global head at Udacity for government, said the pandemic has accelerated the rate at which jobs disappear from the market and made individuals and companies more aware of the importance of "reskilling and upskilling".

Upskilling is the process of learning new skills or teaching workers such skills, while reskilling refers to learning new expertise so that a person can do a different job, or training people to do a different job.

"Education and training are the great equalizer," Elaraby said, adding that data science, artificial intelligence and product management are among the company's most popular courses in Asia.

Rising demand for training in cyberspace for reskilling and upskilling has been seen throughout the online learning industry, not just at Udacity.

The market for massive open online courses, or MOOCs, is expected to grow by $17.7 billion from this year to 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 40 percent, according to the global technology research company Technavio. The market's year-on-year growth this year is forecast to reach nearly 30 percent.

The pandemic has had a clear impact on this sector.

Udemy, another MOOC provider, said its enrollments rose by 425 percent in February and March. Courses in office productivity, health and fitness, information technology and software, and personal development are among the most popular. In Spain, its enrollments grew by 280 percent, and by 200 percent in India.

Felix Yip, associate director of the Centre for Human Resources Strategy and Development at Hong Kong Baptist University, said that due to social distancing rules and lockdowns, most people are working from home, and face-to-face learning has largely disappeared.

Young employees need to grab the opportunity to make themselves more familiar with new knowledge through online learning, he said.

"Compared with (older people) who are still a little behind with this online learning mechanism, this is an opportunity for young people to use digital tools," Yip said.

Skills in demand

Whatever industry workers are employed in, they must be familiar with some technology, Yip said. For example, employees in the retail sector need to understand online marketing, while those in accountancy must know about artificial intelligence.

Elaraby, at Udacity, said that from the Asia-Pacific region to Europe, the same skills are in demand. "Everything around web development, cloud development, mobile development, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence is in demand," he said.

He cited the example of a former Hungarian pilot in his late 20s, who, because of the widespread suspension of international flights caused by the pandemic, began studying Android and iOS smartphone app development on Udacity in order to work as a freelancer in this field.

In addition to technical skills, Elaraby said he would recommend that young people invest in critical thinking, problem-solving and that they develop their communication and creative skills.

Will Fan, co-founder and CEO at education startup NewCampus, said that since the start of the outbreak, user interaction has doubled for the classes it runs for working professionals.

Emphasizing a "learning mindset", New-Campus has invited speakers from leading companies, including image-sharing and social media service platform Pinterest, Chinese technology giant Xiaomi and international education specialists Education First, to give talks.

Within three months of the pandemic emerging, NewCampus expanded in China to Shanghai and Taipei, to Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, to Jakarta, Indonesia, Bangkok, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea, Fan said. He added that COVID-19 has become a "digital accelerator", but has also made career paths more uncertain.

Ivy Kwek Ai Wei, research director at Research for Social Advancement, a think tank based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said: "The pandemic has shown us the importance of being flexible in acquiring new skills that can withstand any shocks. It is important to consider new trends emerging from the crisis, as well as Industry 4.0(the Fourth Industrial Revolution) and the new skills required in the future, especially technology."

With online learning, including MOOCs, gaining ground and poised to play an increased role in giving young people more skills, governments should look to more youth incentives to benefit from the trend, Kwek said.

This is particularly important in a region where many young people still lack internet access, she said, adding that addressing the digital divide is crucial to ensuring that access to upskilling programs is more inclusive and equal.

Udacity's Elaraby said the company works with governments to reskill people, including young workers. The graduation rate from such a program for thousands of people is more than 70 percent, he said, with the same proportion of graduates reporting positive career outcomes within four months.