Indian learners’ technology skills have improved over last year with Cloud Computing emerging as their strongest technology skill on Coursera, but they continue to lag in data science skills according to the online learning platform’s latest Global Skills Report (GSR) 2022 released on Tuesday.
The platform has 102 million registered learners from across the globe, including 15.7 million Indian users which is the second largest country-wise after the US.
India now ranks 56th globally in the technology domain compared to the 66th rank last year, with technology proficiency levels rising from 38 per cent to 46 per cent this year. The learners showed 74 per cent proficiency in Cloud Computing, the report said.
But in terms of overall skills proficiency, India has slipped 4 places to be ranked at the 68th position globally, according to the report, which benchmarks three of the most in-demand skill areas driving employment in the digital economy - business, technology, and data science.
While Indian learners are focusing on building technology skills, they continue to lag in data science skills. Proficiency in data science has dipped from 38 per cent in 2021 to 26 per cent in 2022, leading to a 12-rank drop. India scores low on foundational and specialized data science skills -- Data Visualisation (10 per cent), Statistical Programming (14 per cent), Data Management (22 per cent) among others. The strongest skill in the domain for India continues to be Machine Learning (41 per cent).
Learners in India are concentrating on financial skills as they are over-indexed in skills such as investment management (1.38x), blockchain (1.33x) and risk management (1.22x).
“Industry reports estimate that 28 million new technology jobs will be created in India by 2025. This year’s GSR signals a significant need for Indian learners to bridge the critical skills gap, especially in data science, to ensure this digital potential does not turn into a lost opportunity,” said Raghav Gupta, Managing Director, India and APAC, Coursera.
“Strong industry-academia-government collaboration that focuses on the rapid deployment of high-quality digital and human skills training would be key to ensuring that the Indian workforce remains resilient and competitive amid rapid technological transformation,” he added.
State-wise, learners in West Bengal, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were ahead of the rest of the country. While southern states performed better than those in states in the north across all the three domains, West Bengal was ranked first across the three domains.
The state showed the highest levels of digital skills proficiency in the country, outpacing Karnataka (#4 in technology and #6 in data science), the state where India’s Silicon Valley - Bengaluru is situated. Learners in West Bengal also earned a perfect 100 per cent proficiency in more than 10 skills, across the three domains, such as leadership & management, human resources, cloud computing, computer programming, ML, and data analysis.
Andhra Pradesh is one of the top 3 performing states with high proficiency in business and technology skills.
“The government’s coordinated approach to skill development, public-private partnerships, and synergy through institutions like Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC), has created a robust pool of skilled workers. The state learners have 100% proficiency in security engineering, operating systems, and computer networking,” the report noted.
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