42% of techies quit before completing new course

About 42% of IT professionals give up when learning a new technology, as they cite the lack of guidance and support as the most important reasons, followed by lack of motivation.

A survey conducted by e-learning platform Edureka among 339 Indian IT professionals revealed that Indian IT professionals don’t mind spending on quality learning and support, but at the same time give up learning due to lack of support.

The survey was conducted to understand the modern Indian IT professional's relationship with learning on the job and their behaviour when it comes to learning. While 42% give up learning, 24% say they give up around half of the time and 34% say they rarely or never give up after they have started the learning journey.

However, the time it takes to learn a new technology was the least important concern for the respondents.

A study by KPMG in India and Google 'Online Education in India: 2021' revealed that Reskilling and online certification is the largest category today at $93 million, and it is growing at a CAGR of 38% and it is expected to reach $463 million in 2021.

Another study by FICCI-Nasscom & EY states that 9% of the country's 600 million estimated workforces will be deployed in new jobs that do not even exist today and 37% in jobs that have radically changed skill sets.

An earlier study by Edureka had also found that IT professionals need to up-skill 15-20 times in their career to stay relevant in the industry. Experts point out that e-learning platforms need to rethink learner engagement and course completion seriously as accessibility and affordability will cease to be advantages soon.

The course completion rate at Edureka is about 80%. The study also pointed out that ease of access is a very important factor for IT professionals when they pick their learning platform.

Vineet Chaturvedi, Co-Founder, Edureka, “Low course completion rate is a critical problem that plagues the e-learning industry, but it’s often forgotten in the race to acquire more customers. As the industry matures, completion rates will define the adoption of e-learning among professionals. Tech learners need constant motivation, high-level interactivity, and engagement from learning platforms."

He added that today’s e-learning platforms need to offer the best of both worlds – online learning’s inherent convenience and ease of access with offline’s real-time interaction and engagement.

IT professionals prefer to be upskilled in technologies like Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security and new project management techniques like scrum and agile as these skills are in high demand across technology industry, said Krishna Kumar, Founder, and CEO of Simplilearn.

At Simplilearn, the course completion rate is more than 70%. "Upskilling in these domains increases a professional's chance of getting ahead in his/her career or to secure a better job opportunity with higher monetary benefit," Kumar added.