Most India employees to keep learning throughout their career to stay relevant, finds survey

Technical skills like AI/ML, data processing, and coding are priorities, specifically when considering the future, the survey found

Over 88 per cent of employees in the country expect to continue learning and training throughout their career to stay relevant, a report said on Friday.

A majority of the respondents, who participated in the survey, believe that learning a new language, specifically English, would help them advance in their careers, it added.

Pearson Skills Outlook report, Employee View, is based on a survey among 4,000 people in four countries like the US, the UK, India and Brazil. It included 1,000 respondents from India.

Nearly 9-in-10 (88 per cent) Indian workers expect to continue learning throughout their careers to stay up to date and more than half (75 per cent) of respondents stated that their employers offer skilling as a benefit, the British publishing and education company said in the report.

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In India, technical skills like AI/ML, data processing, and coding are priorities across age groups, specifically when considering skills of the future, the report said.

When looking at top human skills of future interest, language skills rank top for Gen Z Indian workers, the report said, adding that Gen Z are those born in the mid-to-late 1990s and the early 2010s.

The report also found that while millennials and Gen X workers exhibited positive sentiments towards their current career growth, 88 per cent of Gen Z had to rethink their career path due to the uncertainties of the last three years.

Millennials are those born during the early 1980s and the mid-1990s, while Gen X are those born during the 1970s to early 1980s.

Gen Z workers were less likely to feel optimistic about the state of the job market compared to millennials, said the report.

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"Today, the success of any modern organisation depends on the success of its workforce. However, there is a persistent skills gap across industries and markets, which has a direct impact on productivity, business growth and innovation.

"With the proliferation of the Internet and emergence of new technologies, such as AI/ML and data science, the workforce has to not only learn new technical skills but also human skills, which will make their work more effective," Pearson President, Workforce Skills, Michael Howells said.

The Skills Outlook Report brings out the fact that the Indian workers are well aware of their upskilling imperatives and are looking for trustworthy avenues of learning and development, he added.