Indians need to improve both soft and technical skills, shows data

Online learning platform Coursera’s Global Skill Report 2021 has found that while Indian learners are relatively more adept at digital skills like cloud computing and machine learning, there are significant skill challenges across key domains. India’s overall rank in the report was 67 globally, with 38% proficiency.

It ranked 55 in business and 66 in technology and data science. “The pace of skills transformation is slower than the pace of digital transformation in India,” says Raghav Gupta, Coursera’s managing director, India and APAC. Learners must invest in both soft and technical skills to prepare for jobs of the future.”

Improvement in gender dynamics for skills

• 25% increase in overall women learners on Coursera compared to pre-pandemic times.
• 35% increase in women taking up STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) courses over pre-pandemic times.
• The share of STEM course enrollments (which constitute many foundational digital skills) by women learners in India grew from 22% pre-2020 to 33% in 2020, the second-highest increase globally.
• Overall learner-share of 37% among women shows a gap in access to online learning.

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