Lack of critical skills is the biggest career growth obstacle

As the unemployment rate is slowly being restored to pre-covid levels in India, job-seekers say lack of critical skills is the new hurdle.

Simplilearn’s midyear survey report 'State of Upskilling in 2021' understood learners' experience in the past 12 months and their expectations for the coming year.

The survey was conducted with over 2,500 learners comprising both individual and corporate learners who participated in the same. The 20% of the respondents were freshers, 47% were mid-level employees, and 33% were senior-level professionals, the report said. The survey covered employees working in BFSI, Consulting, IT, Manufacturing, Pharma/ Healthcare, and other industries, it added.

What Did We Learn?

The survey found out that 30% of the respondents said lacking key skills is an obstacle that held them back in their career. COVID-19 impacted their career plans as 31% feel stuck due to the pandemic.

Meanwhile 65% of the pollees said they enrolled in upskilling in the past year to strengthen their career.

As per the report, people are now interested in – Data & AI (48%), Project Management and Scrum (34%), Cloud Computing/DevOps (32%), and Digital Marketing (21%).

"Given the rapid changes in the professional landscape, employees across industries must understand how they can adapt to rapidly changing conditions. At the same time, companies have to learn how to match those workers to new roles and activities,” Krishna Kumar, Founder and CEO, Simplilearn, said.

Industry Sentiment

Industries which has incorporated technology offer more opportunities and career growth. People in manufacturing (45%), Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) (39%), and Information Technology (38%) are more likely to upskill for their current work.

About 39% of people in BFSI and 30% in manufacturing took on more responsibilities in their current roles, and 47% of people working in Pharma and Healthcare have reported feeling stuck, the report found out.

Outlook

Job-seekers mostly remain positive and hope for a better comeback during the pandemic. The 85% of the respondents look forward to post-pandemic recovery and growth, 57% of the pollees said upskilling themselves is the next step in their career development plan. However, the common concern among them is lacking key skills which restricts them to get new jobs or be assigned vital projects.