News: More women are opting for Digital courses than men: Emeritus Survey

Diversity

More women are opting for Digital courses than men: Emeritus Survey

Emeritus Institute of Management recently conducted a survey that reveals that the proportion of women opting for digital courses is greater than men.
More women are opting for Digital courses than men: Emeritus Survey

Emeritus Institute of Management that provides online management programs, recently conducted a survey and found that about 39.69% more women are opting for digital courses than men. However, the overall percentage of women going in for executive education is 18% which is much less than 82% men going in for executive education.

According to the information shared in media by Ashwin Damera, executive director, Emeritus Institute of Management, digital marketing, digital marketplaces and digital strategies for business are the most popular digital courses opted by women. Most women who opt for digital courses are from consulting, e-commerce, IT products, IT services and media industries. The data also revealed that about 86 of women complete the courses compared to 82% of men.

On contacting Ashwin, he shares, “As per the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report 2016, more deliberate efforts will be needed to ensure that the full talent pool of women is educated, recruited and promoted, over time creating novel competitive advantages and a virtuous cycle around a company’s ability to address skills shortages by targeting female talent.”

He further shares with People Matters that digital skills are emerging as one of the must-have skills that companies, and women themselves, have identified for moving ahead in their careers. There are three reasons for more women compared to men opting for digital courses that they, at Emeritus, have noticed: More women are in the middle management in companies. Courses like strategy and leadership are for more senior leaders and the percentage of women at these levels is less, hence the participation of women in such courses is less

  • More women are in the middle management in companies. Courses like strategy and leadership are for more senior leaders and the percentage of women at these levels is less, hence the participation of women in such courses is less
  • Industries that have more women in the workplace include e-commerce, media, IT and consulting. All these face digital disruption much more than, say, manufacturing, logistics, etc.
  • Digital jobs are in high demand. Therefore, women are willing to take time from their work-life balance to upskill and enhance their careers. Hence there is a great ROI for them with respect to the investment of their time and money."

He believes one of the primary implications that could result due to more women enrolling themselves in digital courses is that the gender gap will become narrower with equally skilled men and women in the middle management levels.

The data shared by Ashwin Damera in media also reported about the type of courses preferred by people of various age groups. Professionals with 3-8 years of work experience prefer courses in digital marketing, digital marketplaces and corporate finance. People with 8-15 years of work experience mostly opt for digital marketing, design thinking and negotiations courses while 15-20 years of experience professionals want digital strategies for business, design thinking, leading organizations and change programs.

Read full story

Topics: Diversity, Learning & Development

Did you find this story helpful?

Author

QUICK POLL

How do you envision AI transforming your work?