Blockchain developer and Data Analytics predicted to be most popular upskilling courses in 2019

Despite the recent layoffs in the IT sector, there is still a high demand for skills in new technologies. The number of opportunities in the tech employment is expected to increase by 12% by the year 2020. However most of these opportunities will be available in the mainstream new age technologies, such as Machine Learning, Blockchain, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, etc.

According to past enrollment data by UpGrad, here are the top emerging skills that one should potentially look to transition into:

1) Blockchain developer: With a 200% increase in job growth rates and salary hikes at 50-100%, blockchain development is the most in demand skill set that employers are looking for. There are a significant number of job openings for roles such as Blockchain developers, Blockchain system architects, Blockchain software engineers in top tier organizations like TCS, Wipro, IBM and Infosys.

2) Data Science: Data Analytics is one of the fields that has significantly made a rapid growth in India over the past few decades. With an impressive growth rate of 11.7% CAGR, Data Science market is predicated to become a 230 billion market by 2020. India has seen more than 400% rise in the demand for Data Science professionals across varied sectors. However, the supply for such talent witness a slow growth. According to recent reports, India is predicted to face a supply demand of 2 lakh data professionals by 2020.

UpGrad’s Data Science program aims at bridging the gap. The program had typically seen learners with an average of 6+ years of work experience from the IT sector in the past. However there has been a sharp growth in the number of enrollments from the non-IT sectors such as retail banking, finance, healthcare, eCommerce, etc. as well. UpGrad witnessed a little over 200% jump in the enrollments of non-IT learners from last year. The program is designed to help learners’ transition into a Data related role such as Data Analyst, Data Scientist, Data Engineer, Data Architect, etc. The average hike of a transitioned learner in the program is around 50% and there has been quite a few learners who got a hike of 100% post completion of the program.

3) Product management: With the start up boom in the country, there is a massive increase in the number of Product Manager jobs. At the same time, it is one of the most difficult positions to fill. Professionals from a tech or business background usually graduate to Product Manager roles. In a landscape where there is a lack of specialised courses to develop these skill sets, UpGrad’s Product Management course teaches design, business and technical skills to enable successful career transitions.

4) Digital Marketing: The world is going digital and with high internet penetration in the last couple of years, the digital marketing industry is seeing an exponential rise in India. India’s digital advertising industry is growing at 33.5% CAGR (2015-2020), it is currently at a scale of INR 130 billion and by 2020; its value will exceed the INR 255 billion mark. It is estimated that the digital industry will create more than 20 lakhs job in India by 2020. With different programs focusing on strategy and execution aspect of digital marketing, UpGrad prepares learners for different roles and levels in the industry and has seen more than thousand learners varying from 0 to 15+ years of experience going through the digital marketing program each year. UpGrad has witnessed more than 100 successful career transitions in digital marketing and many more stories of learners benefiting from the program by keeping themselves relevant or being able to scale their business ventures by going digital

5) Entrepreneurship: 83% of the Indian workforce would prefer to be entrepreneurs and 56% are considering leaving their current jobs to start their own business. With this entrepreneurial ambition and the Government’s push towards Start up India, there is a large and growing need to learn entrepreneurship. Even working professionals on the brink of starting up are eager to learn skills such as idea validation, consumer research, financial planning, business modelling and so on. Moreover, professionals are keen on learning leadership skills to effectively run a business. UpGrad’s Entrepreneurship Certificate Program has seen over 700 enrolments. 88% of the graduates made improvements to their business model post completion of the program.