Udemy 2021 Trends Report
Udemy 2021 Trends Report
Udemy 2021 Trends Report
Workplace
Learning Trends
Report
Learning Leads the Future of Work
Overview Trend 1 Trend 2 Trend 3 Trend 4 Trend 5 Trend 6 What’s next Methodology
Shelley Osborne
VP of Learning, Udemy
Author of The Upskilling Imperative
Welcome to our annual learning trends report! What does 2021 have in store? If we learned any
lessons this past year, it’s that anything (and I truly
We’ve all experienced the world of work get flipped mean anything) is possible. But as 20th-century
upside down without warning in 2020. While much of Japanese scholar Okakura Kakuzo said, “The art of
this year has been uncertain, one thing has become life is a constant readjustment to our surroundings.”
undoubtedly clear.
That’s what this year’s report is about: change and
The future of work many of us have been talking about how to adjust to it.
is no longer an eventuality — it’s our current reality.
Around the world and across industries, organizations Each trend highlights how workplace learning took
are rethinking what work looks like in fundamental shape around the globe and what it means for your
ways. And it’s on all of us — from senior executives organization in 2021. You’ll also discover why more
to individual contributors — to provide meaningful upskilling and learning agility will be required to
solutions to navigate the days, months, and even keep pace with the “new normal.”
years ahead.
Executive summary
The fast-changing and unpredictable challenges of work may
seem unsurmountable. But the learning behaviors of thousands
of international businesses on the Udemy for Business platform
and a survey of over 500 global professionals offer a glimpse of
the bright future that lies ahead.
The state
of upskilling
Before the pandemic, upskilling was a priority for many Estimated % of workforce
organizations, but it’s clear that it has now become a business upskilled in 2019 vs 2020
imperative. We see this exemplified in the results of our survey.
14%
14 %
to fill it.
2019
38 %
38% 2020
44%
44 % 46
46%% 62%
62 %
34
34%%
The increase in upskilling across the globe is impressive and inspiring. But there’s plenty
of room to grow for learning and development (L&D) in 2021. While over half of survey
respondents report being satisfied with their organization’s L&D program, almost half
are either dissatisfied or indifferent to their program.
43%
43%
57%
57 % 22%
22% 21
21%%
Very or somewhat Neither satisfied Very or somewhat
satisfied nor dissatisfied dissatisfied
42%
38%
31%
Look for the Take action sections throughout this report for actionable advice and best practices to elevate your L&D
programs and initiatives — and join a global community of learners actively shaping the state of upskilling for years to come.
Take action
Evaluate your workplace
learning culture
Cultivating a culture of learning to upskill your employees How strong is your organization’s learning culture?
makes good business sense. It’s simply too expensive for Evaluate it with the Learning Culture Evaluation Workbook and
companies to hire their way out of the skills gap. discover the areas where your culture needs the most improvement.
8,660%
than simply the technical skills related to their outputs or
deliverables.”
8,660% 5,408%
Workplace well-being is even more imperative today.
A study conducted in March and April of 2020 found the
mental health of almost 42% of respondents had declined
since the COVID-19 outbreak began. This could explain
why mental health skill consumption on Udemy for Business
has been growing in industries with essential workforces.
Consumption
Government ofworkers
& Nonprofit mindfulness
developedcourses in
and practiced Consumption of stress management
Consumption of stress management
meditation 40,659% more than they did in 2019. Demand
the Government & Nonprofit industry
for stress management skills grew 5,408% for the
skills inthe
skills in the Healthcare
Healthcare industry
industry
compared
Healthcare to 2019
industry. compared
compared to to 2019
2019
Communication skills
Leadership skills
The slow but steady shift to remote work over the last few
3,201%
3,201%
years already called for a range of new behaviors and skills.
But leaders across every industry were forced to rapidly
prioritize solutions that enable entirely distributed teams to
collaborate effectively in 2020.
Consumption
Consumption ofoflistening
listeningskills
skillsinin the
the
“COVID-19 has really accelerated the shift from ‘remote-
Software Technologyindustry
Software & Technology industry
accessible’ to ‘remote-first’ thinking in collaboration
compared to2019
compared to 2019
design,” says Sprintkick founder and Udemy instructor Evan
Kimbrell. “It used to be the case that a large organization
was considered ‘progressive’ if they could accommodate one
remote worker in each functional team. Now, we’re seeing a
2,042%
2,042%
complete inversion of this paradigm.”
Take action
Promote learning
more effectively
Workplace learning and development teams that directly Include learning in career development and performance
impacted business outcomes have one thing in common — conversations: At least twice a year, share observations of
they’re clever. They never miss an opportunity to transform employees’ talents, coach them to think through their peak
their teams and organization through learning and development. career experiences, and connect them with opportunities
to try new things and learn more in areas where they’re
When asked to report their most effective L&D promotion looking to grow.
strategies and tactics, company-led workshops and employee
resource groups (or ERGs) were ranked the highest. But there Hold postmortems and retrospectives on projects:
are a lot of ways to signal that learning is a priority at your Successfully completing a project is a reason to celebrate.
organization. Here are just a few ideas: It’s also an opportunity to reflect and build a culture of
healthy feedback. A good postmortem takes an honest look
Ask leaders to share lessons from their past experiences: at the completed work and asks, “How can we do better
Leadership signals are the most powerful and impactful next time?”
mechanisms for spreading a culture of learning. Encourage
leaders to be vulnerable and admit their mistakes, too.
There’s a lot of wisdom to be gained from failure.
Overview Trend 1 Trend 2 Trend 3 Trend 4 Trend 5 Trend 6 What’s next Methodology
1,411%
1,411%
hear is opportunity knocking.” That was the promise of a 2012
New York Times’ Sunday Review article based on research
published by McKinsey a year earlier.
Eight years later the hype of “big data” has faded. Businesses Business intelligence course
are inundated with even more proprietary data and very few consumption in 2020.
know how to unlock its potential. But increased consumption
of data analysis, data manipulation, and data visualization
skills on Udemy for Business tells us that data science isn’t just
for data scientists anymore.
9,464%
became a necessity for workers of past generations.
Take action
Put learning into the flow
of (remote) work
Improving the data skills of your entire workforce will give your Set aside dedicated time for learning: At Udemy,
organization a competitive edge in 2021 and beyond. But if employees have a dedicated hour blocked off each month
you’re worried there’s not enough time for employees to learn to drop everything and learn. A similar practice at your
new data skills (or any skill, really), you’re not alone. More than organization will make it clear to your employees that
half of survey respondents (61%) say that lack of time prevents learning at work is not only accepted, it’s encouraged.
their teams from upskilling.
Provide access to online learning platforms and other
A proven way to overcome this challenge is to put learning into learning experiences: You may not have learning materials
the flow of work — even if your workforce is remote. Here are already created for what employees need to learn now,
some suggestions to get started: but by providing access to an online course catalog like
Udemy for Business, you give learners the freedom to
Ask employees to create learning goals: In addition to the discover and set up their own learning pathways.
goals related to job performance and business impact, modern
organizations are requiring individuals to set learning goals.
This sends a message that learning is a priority and not
ancillary to their role.
To free data science teams from the minutiae of manual Data warehouse
Data warehouse +1,488%
+1,488%
data preparation, leaders are investing in training teams
Data modeling
Data modeling +466%
+466%
in data automation tools.
Informatica power
Informatica center +321%
powercenter +466%
1,599%
1,599% 4
Data maintenance and governance are key pieces of a
company’s data architecture. They’re also areas that
companies are continuing to untangle from legacy software
and data issues.
Consumption of
Consumption ofTensorFlow
TensorFlowcourses
courses Co
Humans, not algorithms, are the ones who understand in the
the Software
Software&& Technology
Technologyindustry
industry in
where data is coming from and how it should be used for
compared to2019
compared to 2019 co
machine learning purposes. But, to use their time efficiently,
companies must equip employees with training in the
automation practices their competition is rapidly adopting.
1,599% 463%
463%
TensorFlow, a popular machine learning library built by
Google, saw increased consumption on Udemy for Business
across many industries including Software & Technology
(+1,599%), Government & Nonprofit (+995%), and
Transportation (+463%).
Consumption of TensorFlow courses Consumption of
Consumption ofTensorFlow
TensorFlowcourses
courses
in the Software & Technology industry in the Transportation
Transportationindustry
industry
compared to 2019 compared
compared toto 2019
2019
Take action
Build specialized data science
learning paths
By empowering your data scientists of all levels to adapt Create a skill-specific mentorship program:
their skills with the automation tools and machine learning To build engagement for a data science-specific training
techniques that are transforming their work, you’ll see more program, go a level deeper than the typical mentorship
engaged employees and unlock new business opportunities. program and offer participants the chance to cultivate
relationships with data science colleagues across the
As you tailor data science training to present and future organization.
requirements, keep these tips in mind:
Offer regular social learning opportunities:
Connect each learning path to business outcomes: Whether it’s through a monthly lunch and learn session
When considering which data science proficiencies are needed, or chat channels dedicated to each training path, learning
outline how each training path directly aligns to the company’s from peers is an essential tool to increasing skill
goals. This helps secure buy-in from executive stakeholders. proficiency in a casual environment.
It also allows employees to see the direct connection between
a technical skill set and a business outcome.
DevOps skills
1,189%
1,189% 6
specialized roles. But in most cases, anyone who touches
software development should expect their career path to
reflect the principle of “learning in the flow of life,”
as Deloitte says.
Consumption
Consumption ofofGoogle
GoogleCloud
Cloudcourses
courses Co
“The more skills a team member has, the better they can
in the Manufacturing
Manufacturing industry
industry co
understand more parts of the product,” says Evan Kimbrell,
compared to 2019
compared to 2019 co
Udemy instructor and founder of Sprintkick, a digital app
agency. “The more parts they understand, the better and
more insightful their decision-making becomes. Silo-ing your
engineers in one department is not the best way to utilize an
organization’s human capital.”
1,189%
As companies embraced agile practices through hybrid
roles, DevOps and cloud computing skills rose in 2020.
More specifically, consumption of Google Cloud courses on
the Udemy for Business platform increased by 1,189%
693%
693%
Consumption of Google Cloudincourses Consumptionof
Consumption ofcontinuous
continuousintegration
integration
the Manufacturing industry. And
in the continuous integration,
Manufacturing industry a courses in
in the
theRetail
Retailindustry
industry
courses
DevOps topic, grew by 693% in the Retail industry, reflecting
compared to 2019 comparedto
compared to2019
2019
an eagerness to get product updates to customers faster.
Trend Cybersecurity
6 training takes on
a new urgency
As global workforces went remote because of COVID-19,
cybersecurity took on new urgency for IT teams. Employees
were no longer within the secure digital network of the office
and many started using personal devices for work.
Cybersecurity skills
5,598%
5,598%
Malwarebytes found that “44% of respondents’
organizations did not provide cybersecurity training that
focused on potential threats of working from home (like
ensuring home networks had strong passwords, or devices
were not left within reach of non-authorized users).”
Consumption
Consumption ofofethical
ethical hacking
hacking
5,598% 6,343%
sign-on and multifactor authentication.
Take action
Three reasons your organization
needs to prioritize learning in 2021
A strong learning culture empowers employees to upskill A learning culture is critical for keeping up with
themselves in the face of change and continually grow their workplace transformation: The workplace is changing
skills and adapt to new challenges. so fast that many companies are struggling to keep
up. Companies that treat learning as a strategic asset
However, in times of great change, learning is often one of the understand this and keep moving forward.
first things to be defunded and deprioritized because more
shortsighted organizations view it as something that’s just A learning culture can help close our skills gap: Losing
“nice to have.” In fact, 42% of survey respondents reported highly skilled employees can be a significant drain on
“lack of budget” as the biggest obstacle they faced in 2020. company resources. Gallup estimates a 100-person
company with average attrition rates spends between
Here are three compelling reasons you can use to make the $660K-$2.6M on turnover and replacement.
case for learning and prove that it’s not just an employee perk,
but also business critical. A learning culture fuels innovation: When upskilling is
encouraged and available, employees are more likely to
experiment and innovate. Case studies from companies
like Accenture and DBS Bank have shown that learning
powers curiosity and company performance.
But you don’t have to do it alone. With Udemy for Business, your workforce
can access and learn the skills needed to prepare for whatever comes next.
Methodology
The 2021 Workplace Learning Trends Report is based on data from the learning behavior of thousands of global companies using the Udemy for Business platform and a survey of over 500
Learning and Development professionals.
Skills data compares the consumption of courses in the Udemy for Business collection from January 1, 2019-August 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020-August 1, 2020. All courses are associated
with topics, with each course having up to five topics. These topics are what you see as the trending skills within the report. For courses with multiple topics, consumption minutes are divided
equally across all topics associated with those courses.
From August 19, 2020 to September 10, 2020, 528 global Learning and Development professionals completed a 16-question survey on the current state of their companies’ training programs.