upGrad, an upskilling platform, witnessed 65,668 graduates in 2023. Out of the total, more than 22,000 completed the long format courses and nearly 44,000 learners were a part of its own-branded certification portfolio encompassing Agile Methodology, Project management, DevOps, Cloud Computing, Blockchain etc, as per the press release from the company.
The long-format portfolio includes university-led higher education and upskilling programmes. Interestingly, the total number of women enrolments within this segment rose to 40% in the same year, making courses in Digital Marketing, HR and Data Science their top picks, it added.
As per upGrad Insights, long-format courses remained popular amongst mid-career professionals with 4-10 years of work experience while freshers and early professionals with 0-3 years mostly relied on certifications for instant skill-up.
Also, the company has seen a 55% increase in enrollments for Machine Learning courses during the July-August-September quarter of the same year from 2022. It further demonstrates the rising demand for AI-ready talent.
As per the platform, on average every quarter more than 330 women professionals with more than 10 years of work experience have enrolled for upskilling courses, demonstrating the necessity to stay updated in times when job specs seem to be evolving at a breakneck pace.
According to the upGrad’s marquee India Career Upskilling Report which surveyed over 3500 urban professionals, two out of three people who upskilled were parents. Despite their parenting duties and work pressure, parents believed and invested in upskilling.
“Wider acceptance of continuous learning has encouraged Indian professionals to understand market needs and upskill for stronger career growth. We’ve also noticed interesting variations in their learning patterns and preferences, strengthening our commitment to creating more market-ready offerings for a scalable economy. Although it’s an eventual transition, nearly 30% of our QoQ enrolments on average come from Tier two and three cities, signifying the gradual adoption. We closed 2023 on a very high note and this year will only accelerate our commitment to impacting a bigger learner base while also supporting GOI in powering India’s online learning infrastructure and nation-building,” Mayank Kumar, co-founder, MD, upGrad, said.
The current year’s development also marks a 6.5x jump from the previous calendar year, significantly contributing to upGrad’s YoY growth trajectory, as per the release.