• Role-based skills development - with clear skills proficiency goals to stimulate employee engagement and deliver against organisational objectives
  • Short duration, hands-on learning - for industry standard tools that fuel innovation and application of skills, accelerating talent outcomes
  • A balance of soft skills & tech skills - required for all roles to shape long-term employee productivity

Dubai: The enterprise learning agenda in 2021 will be shaped by the need to rebuild and prepare for new disruption in the wake of COVID-19, according to the world’s leading online learning platform, Coursera. Drawing on data from its 2,400 enterprise customers, including 25 percent of the Fortune 500 companies and over 340,000 employees, Coursera’s insights point to several trends that will shape enterprise learning in 2021.

According to the World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report authored in partnership with Coursera, 77 percent of UAE employers are set to rapidly increase digitalisation in the year ahead, including plans to accelerate the digitalization of employee upskilling and reskilling (40 percent). To do so, companies must redraw their skills development goals and focus on rolling out an enterprise-wide learning strategy in partnership with all business units - one that’s viewed as long-term, strategic and constantly evolving.

Organisations also need to provide employees with the tools and resources needed not just to do their job, but to perform it accurately. Role-based skills development with a clear application to day-today responsibilities will become ever more important to deliver against organisational objectives. A recent IDC study found that making learning integral to every employee’s role in an organisation sees a 746 percent ROI over three years.

The need for job specific professional skills, particularly across business, technology, and data science is reflected in the most popular Coursera programmes in 2020, including Programming for Everybody from the University of Michigan and Neural Networks and Deep Learning from deeplearning.ai which jointly received over 1.4 million enrollments since the start of 2020.

Addressing the need for domain-specific tools through hands-on learning is becoming increasingly important as well. Whether it’s Introduction to Relational Database and SQL, or Creating Your First Python Program, companies rely on ready-to-use tools, many of which are not widely taught in traditional university programs. Guided Projects on Coursera address this need and are being used by companies like Nokia to drive continuous reskilling across teams.

Finally, in the year ahead, employers will need to introduce measures to develop soft skills and support employee well-being as a result of the effects of COVID-19 on society and the economy. Coursera saw a 88 percent growth in personal development courses among the employed population in 2020, including courses like The Science of Well-Being by Yale University and Learning How to Learn by University of California San Diego. This trend is an important reminder that such skills have a direct bearing on long-term productivity.

Jennie Drimmer, Regional Director, Coursera for Business, EMEA says: “2020 has been a tough year but also one characterised by resilience. Over the past months, leading companies around the world have launched, renewed or expanded their partnership with Coursera to innovate and build the foundation for post-COVID growth. With the business landscape changing at an unprecedented rate, companies must embrace learning in order to compete in the long haul.

- Ends-

ADDITIONAL DATA

Top Courses on Coursera Among Employees in 2020

*Data Source: +340,000 employees worldwide on Coursera

1

Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)

University of Michigan

2

Neural Networks and Deep Learning

Deeplearning.ai

3

Agile Software Development

University of Minnesota

4

AI for Everyone

Deeplearning.ai

5

Introduction to Data Science in Python

University of Michigan

 

Top Guided Projects on Coursera Among Employees in 2020

*Data Source: +340,000 employees worldwide on Coursera

1

Spreadsheets for Beginners using Google Sheets

2

Introduction to HTML

3

Predicting Salaries with Simple Linear Progression in R

4

Introduction to Relational Database and SQL

5

Create for first Python Program

 

Top Trending Skills in the UAE  vs Emerging Jobs in the UAE 

*Data Source: World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report & Coursera’s 436K UAE learners

 

Emerging Jobs in The UAE

Top Trending Skills in The UAE

1

Data Analysts and Scientists

Python Programming

2

Digital Marketing and Strategy Specialists

Digital Marketing

3

Business Development Professionals

Project Management

4

AI and Machine Learning Specialists

Artificial Intelligence

5

Digital Transformation Specialists

Machine Learning

About Coursera

Coursera was founded by Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng with a vision of providing life-transforming learning experiences to anyone, anywhere. It is now a leading online learning platform for higher education, where 76 million learners from around the world come to learn skills of the future. More than 200 of the world’s top universities and industry educators partner with Coursera to offer projects, courses, Specializations, certificates, and degree programs. 2,400 companies trust the company’s enterprise platform Coursera for Business to transform their talent. Coursera for Government equips government employees and citizens with in-demand skills to build a competitive workforce. Coursera for Campus empowers any university to offer high-quality, job-relevant online education to students, alumni, faculty, and staff. Coursera is backed by leading investors that include Kleiner Perkins, New Enterprise Associates, Learn Capital, and SEEK Group.

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