During the pandemic, traditional avenues of skills training — such as software training, marketing and management courses offered by private and government institutes — remained shut for over a year. Undeterred, many youngsters opted for a bundle of online skills training courses through an increasing number of digital platforms. For these youths, the pandemic has turned out to be an opportunity, rather than a threat, to add new skills to their CV.

Take the case of Priyanka Nair, a fourth-year BTech student of computer science at GITAM University, Visakhapatnam. When the pandemic locked her at home in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, she chose to join some courses offered by Coursera — a massive open online course or Mooc provider working with top international universities — to complete her assignments. The courses had to do with cloud computing, machine learning, disaster management and cryptography. She says, “I found the courses beneficial before the pandemic too. I had used Coursera as add-ons in game development and virtual reality.” The course on programming languages such as Python and C++ not only helped her complete projects, she also sailed through internships.

Before the pandemic, she had applied for financial aid to enrol for the courses. But after the pandemic, her college collaborated with Coursera and she availed the courses for free. But Priyanka was not content. She also joined courses offered by NPTEL, an Mooc initiative by seven IITs, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and Prepbytes, a platform to enhance coding skills. “The courses helped improve my coding skills. Besides, these were more elaborate compared to the short Coursera courses.”

Animesh Deb of Tripura is also a fan of NPTEL. After completing his BTech in civil engineering in 2019 from the North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, he is now pursuing MTech in artificial intelligence at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala. He is in his final year and interning as a software developer at SAP Labs India in Bangalore. He did 13 courses at NPTEL alongside his BTech course. He did courses in Python, data science, business analytics, remote sensing, digital land surveying, cloud computing and even human resource management. He says, “Since I wanted to learn new things, I started learning them online. NPTEL gave me the confidence to pursue new things beyond my domain in civil engineering.”

Since NPTEL courses are inexpensive and supported by top IITs, tech students have a preference for this platform. Abhishek Acharya, a final-year BTech student of computer science and engineering at the RCC Institute of Information Technology, Calcutta, did 14 NPTEL courses. He says, “I wanted to broaden my knowledge and acquire an in-depth understanding of the subject.” Among others, he did courses in software engineering, Java, C, C++, Python, soft skills and personality development. The courses helped him prepare for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering. “Not only does it help us answer the interview questions, it also covers many advanced topics.”

Not just engineering, arts, humanities and business students have taken upskilling courses via online platforms. Renee, a business studies undergraduate student at Symbiosis International University, Pune, took a number of courses. She says, “During the pandemic, I was fortunate enough to discover Coursera, where I had access to a variety of courses, including First Step Korean by Underwood International College, Yonsei University [South Korea], where I learned my favourite language.”

In addition, she did two courses in Excel Skills for Business Specialisation from Macquarie University, Australia, and learnt how to write effectively from the Write Professional Emails in English course from Georgia Tech [US]. “As a beginner in business studies, the reading and video content, quizzes, real-life case studies and assignments gave me the confidence and tools to excel in school.”

The opportunity to learn from faculty members of top national and international institutes has put these youngsters ahead of most. Surveys by recruitment firms show that due to changes in consumer behaviour and business models caused by the pandemic, there will be new occupations and shifts of jobs across the world. Workers will be challenged to upskill themselves or acquire new skill sets. These youngsters are ready to accept the new challenges of the workplace.