69% of employees plan to devote more time to upskilling: Report

At least 69 per cent of the respondents of a survey said they plan to spend more time upskilling, while 72 per cent are looking to change employers or pivot to a new career altogether amid the pandemic, a report said on Friday.

According to the online bootcamp for digital economy skills training Simplilearn, the report highlights employee trends regarding career development through the past 12 months and expectations for the coming year.

"The pandemic has impacted professionals irrespective of gender or age. This has also been a challenging time for many in terms of career growth. However, it is promising to see the optimism in terms of post-pandemic development, and it is no doubt that the importance of continued learning has come through during this time," Will Wei Lin, Chief Marketing Officer, Simplilearn, said in a statement.

The survey was conducted to understand career trajectories of professionals in the past year - obstacles faced, what they did differently to improve their careers, the impact of these actions, and insight on new skills they have learned or plan to learn.

The survey obtained responses from 750 learners and identified that 64 per cent expect economic growth to continue and the pandemic to fade away.

While 37 per cent of the respondents cited lacking skill certifications or new skills their jobs required as an obstacle to career growth, 18 per cent cited a lack of soft skills like verbal and written communication, supervisory skills, and presentation.

A least 28 per cent of the respondents who were planning to do better in their current roles and 30 per cent of those who were looking to pivot to a new career showed interest in skills such as Data Science, Digital Marketing, and Project Management.