Indian data science professionals are increasingly leveraging reskilling and upskilling programmes to unearth new career opportunities for themselves, revealed the findings from the recently released Emeritus India Impact Survey. The survey, conducted by Emeritus, a global leader in world-class professional education, found that 2 in every 3 data science professionals polled were able to gain an edge over peers as a result of participating in professional upskilling programmes from Emeritus.
A majority of the data science professionals surveyed – about 86% – admitted to seeing a positive impact on their jobs from the programmes they were a part of within a span of 12 months, demonstrating the immediacy of the programme outcomes. 1 in 2 professionals said they advanced in their current jobs and were also able to unearth new career opportunities, thanks to the programme they undertook. The majority of the survey respondents belonged to the fields of software and IT services, healthcare, as well as, finance and insurance.
There is a huge gap of at least 51% between the demand and supply of data science professionals (working in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and big data analytics) in India, as per the ‘State of Data Science & AI Skills in India’ report 2023 published by Nasscom, the apex body for Indian IT industry. In an encouraging sign that could help close this gap, the Emeritus India Impact Survey found that data science professionals who took up upskilling programmes could also contribute to their organisation’s growth. Over 60% of the professionals agreed to having witnessed a technical improvement organisationally as a result of the insights gathered from data science programmes conducted by world-renowned industry experts and thought leaders.
The programmes were also helpful in imparting data science professionals with the necessary skills to fill gaps in the knowledge of their jobs (61%), valuable tools and training that they could immediately apply to their work (63%), as well as, future-proof their careers (56%).
Commenting on the Emeritus India Impact Survey findings, Mohan Kannegal, CEO, India and APAC, Emeritus, said, “There isn’t any sector today that can remain untouched by data science and analytics in today’s world, while at the same time, there exists a huge gap in the number of professionals skilled in the domain. At Emeritus, we are driven to plug these skill gaps through our high-quality professional upskilling programmes curated in partnership with world-class educational institutions that aim to elevate the learner’s skillset. The Emeritus India Impact Survey 2022 points to several positive signs that upskilling helps not just at an individual level, but also at an organisational level.”
This recently released India Impact Survey was conducted in September 2022, with learners who completed Emeritus professional education programmes through its partner schools before June 2022.