Upto 60% jump in IT employees taking courses to avoid a possible layoff

As Indian IT companies want their employees updated with the latest trends in the industry, Indian techies are rushing to upskill themselves in the fast-changing IT landscape.

Industry experts say that the advent of intelligent tools like ChatGPT, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a risk and may threaten IT sector jobs in the short term, a report published in The Economic Times (ET) said.

In a recent announcement, IBM declared that it was considering replacing 7,800 employees with AI.

In the last 3-6 months, online learning platforms including SimpliLearn, Great Learning, Emeritus, Scaler, and Coursera, among others have registered a growth of 20 to 60 per cent in IT professionals looking for courses to upskill themselves, the ET report said.

People who track the industry developments said that the trend to upskill may be a result of the ongoing layoffs in the sector and the employees taking these courses may be looking for protection from possible firing. Additionally, it is likely that aspirational candidates in search of better opportunities are also taking these courses.

The World Economic Forum's report titled "Future of Work '' said that by 2027, AI will create 69 million new jobs while eating up 83 million. A net loss of 14 million jobs across the world.

With AI and machine learning dominating the discussion in the space, many employees are taking these courses in order to stay ahead of the curve and maintain their relevance.

Cofounder of upGrad, Mayank Kumar was quoted in the report as saying that the pandemic-induced economic turbulence has made IT professionals feel insecure and they are taking steps to not fall into the "layoff" bucket.