SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Udemy (Nasdaq: UDMY), a leading online skills marketplace and learning platform, today released its 2024 Global Learning & Skills Trends Report, which identifies the top themes and most in-demand skills anticipated to shape the future of work in 2024 and beyond. The annual report, which leverages data from Udemy’s nearly 15,000 business customers, showcases the critical investments organizations must make to future-proof their workforce, including: the shift toward a skills-based economy, adoption of generative AI and increased focus on leadership development.

“Leaders today are looking to drive business results in a fast-changing world by taking a skills-first approach,” said Stephanie Stapleton Sudbury, President of Udemy Business. “Our data shows that organizations are making significant investments to upskill their employees on generative AI capabilities to help boost their productivity, enhance their technical skills and develop stronger leaders, as they continue to navigate the transformational shift toward a skills-based organization that embraces the power of artificial intelligence.”

As the pace of innovation accelerates, many organizations are grappling with how to address the widening skills gap, which is projected to in turn cause a talent gap shortage of 85 million workers by 2030. To help bridge these gaps and build a more agile workforce, Udemy identified three critical areas of investment as companies begin business planning for the year ahead.

1. Take a skills-based approach. The skills required for any given job are increasing by 10% annually, with many of the competencies deemed critical for job performance just three years ago, soon becoming irrelevant. In response to this, many business leaders are shifting toward a more practical, skills-based approach which puts greater emphasis on skills development and validation, rather than relying solely on degrees and previous work experience. Due to this shift, businesses have begun making considerable investments in learning and development, as evidenced by Udemy welcoming 10 million new learners to its platform with more than 134 million course enrollments noted over the past 12 months.
   
   
2. Adapt to advances in generative AI. Experts predict that generative AI could help automate up to 30% of current work hours by 2030, contributing an estimated $15 trillion to the global economy. Additionally, as companies continue to embrace this new technology and the efficiency it creates, many jobs will be displaced and then reshaped within the 97 million net-new roles expected by 2025. As a result, organizations are eager to train up existing talent on generative AI and redeploy them by implementing this new technology in their daily flow of work, as seen by the 60% increase in AI-related training on the Udemy platform over the past year and with course enrollments in ChatGPT spiking more than 4,419% in Q1 2023 alone.
   
   
3. Develop strong leaders. Today’s workforce is under immense pressure as they undergo a period of near-constant change from the growing permanence of hybrid work to the rise of generative AI and widening skills gaps, leaving more than half of employees feeling burnt out. With the cost of disengaged workers exceeding $8.8 trillion in 2022 alone, it’s imperative that organizations invest in leadership development––particularly for frontline managers––to avoid putting their organization’s digital transformation at risk. Over the past year alone, Udemy has seen increased investment in leadership development topics, including: communication, management fundamentals, emotional intelligence and digital transformation. Coaching, in particular, saw a 177% year-over-year surge among managers and leadership teams.
   

“As organizations continue to embrace the promise of generative AI and other fast-evolving innovations, there is also intense disruption — disruption in employee roles, in how work gets done and in the nature of the work itself,” said Melissa Daimler, Chief Learning Officer at Udemy. “Change leadership is essential. Developing skills like resilience and leading through change are even more important to reinforce as we navigate and embrace these disruptions.”

Fastest Growing Skills
This year’s report also highlights skills showing the highest percentage growth. Some of these are skills with minimal presence the previous year (e.g., ChatGPT) and some of them have long been skills we are tracking year-over-year (advertising strategy), but all of which have shown drastic percentage growth in consumption over the past year. These skills span business and technical focus areas, along with some of the hottest anticipated skill competencies for 2024. As the pace of change is requiring upskilling and reskilling faster than ever before, the top 10 surging skills that professionals know they’ll need to train up on include:

1. OpenAI’s ChatGPT (4,419%)
2. Environmental, social and governance (3,128%)
3. Google Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer certification (1,454%)
4. Behavioral economics (1,326%)
5. Advertising strategy (1,118%)
6. Certification and software test-taking preparation (1,044%)
7. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics (799%)
8. Autodesk 3ds Max (780%)
9. DevSecOps (730%)
10. Software design (624%)

Today, nine in 10 executives are focused on implementing a skills-based approach to define work, talent, career management and more. However, the majority of leaders are struggling to navigate the complex skills landscape and lack the necessary resources required to facilitate this shift. To help companies transition to a skills-based future, Udemy debuted the Integrated Skills Framework earlier this year, which provides organizations with a roadmap to help them understand the fundamental components of a skills-based approach to learning. Additionally, through Udemy’s new badging and certification offerings, organizations are able to quickly and easily assess their current technical skills landscape, identify critical gaps and supply employees with an effective way to acquire, validate and share skills mastery.

To read the full report and learn more about the top business and technical skills organizations remain focused on, across marketing, sales, operations, human resources, cloud computing, cybersecurity, development and more, visit: https://business.udemy.com/2024-global-learning-skills-trends-report.

Methodology
For this report, Udemy analyzed data from thousands of customers around the world. Total consumption was calculated by Udemy Business learners across all course topics for the year from July 1, 2022 to July 1, 2023. The percentage growth in consumption was calculated by comparing data from July 1, 2021, to July 1, 2022. The new learner and course enrollment data on the Udemy platform, which includes both individual and business learners, was calculated over the same time frame. Adjusted time frames were used for some data pulls, particularly data around ChatGPT usage, given that some topics only emerged in the post period.

About Udemy
Udemy (Nasdaq: UDMY) transforms lives through learning by providing flexible, effective skill development to empower organizations and individuals. The Udemy marketplace platform, with thousands of up-to-date courses in dozens of languages, offers the tools learners, instructors and enterprises need to achieve their goals and reach their full potential. Millions of people learn on the Udemy platform from real-world experts in topics ranging from programming and data science to leadership and team building. Udemy Business enables employers to offer on-demand learning for all employees, immersive learning for tech teams and cohort learning for leaders. Udemy Business customers include FenderⓇ, Glassdoor, On24, The World Bank and Volkswagen. Udemy is headquartered in San Francisco with hubs in Ankara and Istanbul, Türkiye; Austin, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Dublin, Ireland; Melbourne, Australia; and New Delhi, India.

Media Contact:
Ellen D. Kiehl
Director, Corporate Communications
press@udemy.com