Demand for online business and technical skills surges.
A major online learning provider has released its list of most-popular courses, with data analytics, cloud, and customer experience (CX) management. While the demand for analytics and cloud is predictable, it’s notable that there is a growing emphasis on CX, as organizations seek to achieve advantage through more robust engagement.
The study, published by Udemy, reviewed the growth of most commonly consumed business and technical skills. Communication and leadership were the fastest-growing skills in demand from a business perspective, and data analytics and cloud skills on the technical side.
Here are this year’s consumption growth among the following business courses:
There are solid business justification for the surge in interest in CX skillsets, industry leaders state. “Companies should be putting an emphasis on the usability and design of their products if they want consumers to use them,” says Rohan Amin, chief product officer at Chase Bank. “Managing your finances shouldn’t feel overwhelming. We’ve invested significantly in our design organization because we know that consumers want to use beautifully designed experiences that simplify their financial life and are easy to use.”
CX has become a critical skill even for technology professionals — with the ability to blend these business and technology skills. “As you think about customer experience, the best thing a tech professional can do is think about a great customer service interaction they’ve had that can be leveraged in future CX designs,” says Michael Wallace, senior manager of solutions architecture at Amazon Web Services (AWS). “Most likely, the great experience was due to employees having access to technology. Integrations to back-end systems, collection of meaningful data and leveraging machine learning to get the information quickly are all critical components to understanding and serving customers better. By improving the customer experience, the employee experience will also be improved.”
Employees are working hard to acquire the skills they need. 49% Total learning hours of technical skills increased 49% over the last year on Udemy Business.* * Total year-over-year percentage growth in consumption of technical skills learning on the Udemy Business platform.
For top-consumed technical skills, cloud computing skills remain a primary area of focus with topics related to AWS claiming four of the top 10 most-consumed skills, the Udemy report states. Skills and solutions for data analysis and security also ranked high among the surging technical skills. Databricks (increased 2,161%) System design interview (increased 1,012%) 5G (increased 643%).
The Udemy report authors emphasize that blended business and technology skills are the key to success in today’s digital enterprises. “Learners are focusing most on communication, underlining the importance of creating alignment, fostering collaboration and teamwork, mitigating conflict, and enabling productivity,” they point out. “At the same time, the ability to manage complex work projects — and the technology to do so — is seeing intense growth. In a hybrid world, where teams no longer have the chance to sit down around the table on a regular basis, there has to be a deliberate effort to track projects and keep everyone in sync and accountable.”
