With changing times, the entire world has found itself at the threshold of digitalisation. And covid-19 pandemic has only boosted this. With communication, entertainment and education all taking the online route, one isn’t left with any other choice.. Since 24th March last year, when the lockdown was imposed for the first time, e- skill courses have been the choice of countless students, homemakers and professionals who utilised the time to upgrade themselves.
If one has to talk about the Government sponsored courses then the free online certification courses offered by NSDC Skill India have been the most popular.
NSDC Skill India Free Online Certification Courses.
Under the banner of NSDC Skill India both free and paid courses are available. Big names like IBM, BSE Institute Limited, iPRIMED, LinkedIn and Microsoft India Private Limited have partnered with NSDC Skill India as its knowledge partners and have offered their knowledge not only for students but for people across age groups.
Free and Paid Courses offered by Non-Govt andPrivate Institutions.Along with Government run programs, many institutions like Future Learn, AICTE technical courses, IGOT, SWAYAM, NASSCOM sponsored courses have also been popular.
There have been many other applications who have offered free as well as paid courses and gained popularity amongst its user base. Names like BYJU’s, Coursera, Udemy, Skillshare, SHAWAcademy, Khanacademy, Vedantu, LinkedIn, Internshala etc have been popular skill enhancement platforms.
Rise of E-Course Market Manish Kumar – CEO – NSDC
1. Manish Kumar, chief executive officer NSDC informed about the rising market of e courses. He added that there has been a 2000% rise in the number of people registering for such skill development online courses during the lockdown. He further said that the IT related courses have witnessed the maximum rise – 21%
2. Speaking to Vibes of India, Niral Modi – founder of Learnvern said that their platform offered more than 40 courses in vernacular languages like Hindi and Bangla. With lock down in effect the number of people turning to the courses on this platform has registered 5000% growth. Before the pandemic when 5000 – 10000 users registered each month, the lockdown increased this number to 50,000 and more each month.
Reasons behind E courses becoming popular
When the Vibes of India team spoke to different people including parents, college students, professionals, teachers, student counsellors and homemakers, all had different reasons.
Speaking to Minakshi Sharma who is a teacher and a mother herself said “My children got extremely bored during lockdown and this was taking a toll on their mental health making them feel dejected. For me, keeping them at home and involving them in some activity was important. I got my son enrolled for a decoding course online, ” answered when asked about her reasons.
We spoke to Madhurima Roy, a teacher with Anand Niketan school, about her views and she shared, ” After online classes, children do have free time. Utilizing the same to devout time to their hobby or learning a new skill online has been the e biggest offering of these એ courses. Many children have picked up skills or hobbies of their interest like arts and craft, painting, dance and music and baking”.
Devang Shah, a physics teacher added saying, “Most professionals have turned to ecourses to strengthen their resume. IT skills like coding and python have become popular, given their usability in the digital world.”
Himanshi Gupta, a student of NIMCJ shared her reasons to pursue a course online.” I wanted to enhance my writing skills so that I could upgrade my knowledge and myself.”
Founder of Astha Events and a student herself, Astha Desai told team VOI, “On normal days it was difficult to spare time when one was caught up between work and studies. But lockdown gave me ample time and allowed me to pursue my hobbies like cooking and baking through online courses and bought a positive impact.”
Niraj Harlalka, who is a student counsellor and the co- founder of Eduberance while speaking to VOI said,” Different age groups have made different courses popular, for example, students of age group 4 to 13 have picked courses like clay art, baking, dance and drawing. And technical courses have been popular with older students and professionals.“
For many housewives and homemakers, e-courses have been a boon. Initially when they felt inferior joining a class or enhancing their skill along with the youngsters, the liberty of joining an online class from the comfort of their home has been a welcome. Along with taking care of their home these online classes have offered them a ray of hope to devote time towards themselves and upgrade their own skills.
