Coursera Global Skills Index: 90% of developing economies are lagging or emerging in critical skills, including India
Coursera, the world’s largest online learning platform, today released its inaugural global skills benchmarking report – ‘Global Skills Index: 2019 (GSI)’. The report reveals skill trends and performance data for 60 countries and 10 industries across Data Science, Technology, and Business.
With 39 million learners and more than 3,000 courses from the world’s top universities and industry educators, Coursera has one of the largest databases to study skill trends. Leveraging actual Coursera learner performance data, the GSI provides actionable insights to governments and companies, which they can use to design a workforce transformation strategy that addresses their skills strengths and shores up their weaknesses.
“The global skills landscape is under major transition. With technology advancing faster than humans, the skills that once fueled careers, industries, and entire economies will no longer suffice,” said Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera. “With the launch of Coursera’s Global Skills Index, governments and companies now have unprecedented access to high-quality skills data to understand how their workforce stacks up against the world and take action on any critical upskilling opportunities.”
In addition to providing valuable skill insights, Coursera is committed to helping learners act on areas of lower skill performance. To help learners bridge the knowledge divide in India, Coursera is launching 10,000 scholarships for Technology, Data Science, and Business courses to learners in India. These scholarships will allow learners to select from a curated list of Coursera courses that line up with India’s lagging or emerging skills identified in the GSI.
The Coursera Global Skills Index highlights both global and regional skill performance for Asia Pacific countries, including India. The Global Skills Index reveals that 90 percent of developing economies are falling behind or are at risk of falling behind in critical skills. India is included, ranking emerging or lagging globally across the three domains. Globally, India ranks #50 in Business, #44 in Technology, and #51 in Data Science, which signals a great opportunity for more focused upskilling efforts on key competencies. India is also behind regionally — among the 16 Asia Pacific countries profiled in the report, India ranks towards the middle or the bottom. India’s strength in Technology and computer-related skills shows positive skill potential, and is likely driven by the country’s large IT industry and substantial workforce investments in advanced technologies. Within Technology, India ranks #9 regionally, with Databases (37%) and Security Engineering (32%) as its strongest performing competencies. Within Data Science, India is also exceptionally strong in Math (75%), revealing a competitive skill proficiency in foundational skills.
