Global Skills Report 2022: Highlights

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The Coursera Global Skills Report 2022 is an in-depth look at the state of skills globally. The Global Skills Report draws data from 100 million learners in more than 100 countries who have used Coursera to develop a new skill during the past year. The report benchmarks three of the most in-demand skill areas driving employment in the digital economy – business, technology, and data science. For the first time, this year’s report also highlights changes in ranking for each country, and state-specific data for the U.S. and India, where regional variations are notable.

The 2022 Global Skills Report highlights how the acceleration of digital transformation, inflation, and global instability are driving increased demand for digital and human skills needed to thrive in the new economy.
The Great Resignation and automation are mandating stronger investments in human capital, as institutions must prioritize developing the high-demand digital and human skills required to build a competitive and equitable workforce.
The data shows these skills are not equally distributed, and students and low-wage workers need access to flexible, affordable, and fast-tracked pathways to entry-level digital jobs that offer a foundation for a stronger and more inclusive economy.
Categories divided for Ranking: In the Global Skills Report, over 100 countries are ranked against one another, with percentile rankings attributed to each skill proficiency. A country that shows 100% skills proficiency ranks at the top of the 100+ countries, and a country at 0% is at the bottom. Coursera breaks out each group’s percentile rankings into the following four categories based on quartiles:

Entry-level or “gateway” certificate course enrollments among women reached 40% in 2021, up significantly from 25% in 2019.
There is a strong correlation between skills proficiency, GDP, and broadband access.
Developed countries saw more learners acquiring human skills including change management and resilience.
The most popular business and technology skills globally in the last year were leadership and management, probability and statistics, and theoretical computer science.
Learners also focused on courses that develop the skills needed to understand the COVID-19 pandemic.

India’s overall skills proficiency has slipped four places to be ranked at the 68th position globally. In Asia, India stands at the 19th position.
The report findings further revealed an increase in India’s technology proficiency levels from 38% to 46%, with the country strengthening its position by six spots.
On the other hand, proficiency in data science has dipped from 38% in 2021 to 26% in 2022, leading to a 12-rank drop.
Cloud Computing is India’s strongest technology skill with 74% proficiency. However, Indian learners continue to lag in data science skills.
Slipping by 12 ranks, India scores low on foundational and specialized data science skills — Data Visualization (10%), Statistical Programming (14%), and Data Management (22%) among others. The strongest skill in the domain for India continues to be Machine Learning (41%).
Switzerland had the highest-skilled learners followed by Denmark, Indonesia, and Belgium.

Learners in India are concentrating on financial skills. Learners in India are over-indexed in skills such as investment management (1.38x), blockchain (1.33x), and risk management (1.22x).
West Bengal leads the Indian states in terms of skills proficiency. The state showed the highest levels of digital skills proficiency in the country, outpacing Karnataka. Learners in West Bengal also earned a perfect 100% proficiency in more than 10 skills, across the three domains, such as leadership and management, human resources, cloud computing, computer programming, machine learning, and data analysis.
Andhra Pradesh is one of the top three performing states with high proficiency in business and technology skills.
Industry reports estimate that 28 million new technology jobs will be created in India by 2025. This year’s GSR signals a significant need for Indian learners to bridge the critical skills gap, especially in data science, to ensure this digital potential does not turn into a lost opportunity