Only 33% of Professionals Take Upskilling Courses for Salary Hikes: Survey Report by Simplilearn

• Over 1,750 professionals participated in Simplilearn's annual survey on 'Digital Transformation and Future of Tech Jobs in India'
• AI, Data Science, and Cloud Computing remain the hottest fields for 2020

BENGALURU, March 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Simplilearn, a leading digital skills training provider, published the findings of its annual survey titled 'Digital Transformation and Future of Tech Jobs in India'. The survey provides insights into how digital transformation is impacting the Indian workforce. Simplilearn surveyed over 1,750 learners and IT professionals in India to understand their views on upskilling, emerging digital skills, and the nature of future jobs. 

How Digital Transformation affects the Indian workforce

Digitization is today transforming businesses globally and across India. Organizations are gradually integrating new technologies like AI and machine learning, which are proving effective in increasing productivity and efficiency at workplaces. Remarkably, 44.7% of respondents shared that the company's shift to digitization has motivated them to invest in upskilling themselves. 25.6% of the survey respondents stated that digitization has helped improve their performance at work, and 12.7% said that it opened new project opportunities. Another 7.9% said it attracted new job opportunities.

Digital Skills needed in today's job market

Automation will soon replace job roles that involve repetitive tasks, and in turn, it will create new job opportunities in the field of technology. A World Economic Forum report stated that AI will create 58 million new jobs by 2022; this is a strong indicator of the need to upskill and reskill employees. The survey highlights that the interest in skills related to AI and Machine learning has increased from 18% in 2018 to 30 % in 2019. Including  AI and ML, the top 4 new skills for 2020 include 26% for Data science, 18% for cloud computing, and 10% for cybersecurity. 

With rising digital transformation across sectors, AI, Data Science, and Cloud Computing remain the fields with the highest demand for 2020. The report predicts the average yearly salary of a Data Scientist will be between Rs 5 lakh to 42 lakh, followed by the range of Rs 4.97 lakh to 50 lakh per year for someone in Cloud Computing and Rs 5 lakh to 70 lakh per year for Artificial Intelligence related jobs.

How professionals are sponsoring their career growth with skilling programs

For organizations today, it is of utmost importance to invest in digitally upskilling their employees to prevent both the company and its workforce from becoming obsolete. 58.3% of survey respondents stated that they take up upskilling courses at their own cost, while 10.5% have the company sponsoring. The remaining 31.2% indicated that they and their organizations contribute together to the cost of upskilling programs.

Sharing his views on the Simplilearn annual survey, Krishna Kumar, Founder and CEO of Simplilearn, said, "With the maturing technology sector, employers are looking for validation of an employee's skill sets with relevant certification. Professionals do understand that they need to upskill to stay relevant in their careers and are focusing on getting hands-on learning from the digital skilling courses they take up. We are today seeing a rise in self-financed training by professionals, as compared to 2018. Though this method of training is gaining traction, sizable shares of professionals still depend on their organizations to fund their upskilling needs. Therefore time is now for enterprises to make L&D a boardroom discussion." 

The ultimate motivation to upskill

Beyond the challenges to upskill lies the motivation level of a professional. As per the survey, the top three reasons for upskilling are as follows and highlights that salary hikes remain a strong motivator for upskilling, with 33% of professionals agreeing. Survey respondents cited additional motivating factors: 27% of professionals choose to upskill to get opportunities related to hands-on and industry-relevant projects, and another 21% wish to upskill for rewards and recognition.

Today, the Indian workforce understands that their roles will evolve as technology progresses. As they feel the impact of new technologies, both professionals and organizations will have to acquire new technology skills to keep pace with the emerging job trends in 2020.

About Simplilearn

Simplilearn enables professionals and enterprises to succeed in the fast-changing digital economy. The company provides outcome-based online training across digital technologies and applications such as Big Data, Machine Learning, AI, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Digital Marketing, and other emerging technologies. Based in San Francisco, CA, Raleigh, NC, and Bangalore, India, Simplilearn has helped more than one million professionals and 1,000 companies across 150 countries get trained, acquire certifications, and reach their business and career goals. The company's Blended Learning curriculum combines self-paced online learning, instructor-led live virtual classrooms, hands-on projects, student collaboration, and 24/7 global teaching assistance. The IDC InfoBrief, How Blended Learning Impacts Training Success (October 2019), found that blended learning methodologies using a combination of virtual instructor-led training (V-ILT), electronic self-paced content, and projects were up to 122 percent more likely to be best in class at transferring knowledge and up to 50 percent more likely to be best in class for cost-effectiveness. Training Industry recognized Simplilearn as a Top 20 Online Learning Library Company for 2017-2019. For more information, visit Simplilearn.com.

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Amrutha Moorthy
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