What the World Learned at Work: August 2021’s Hottest Skills
Every month, the Udemy Business team analyzes and shares trends. We look at what employees are learning across our thousands of customers around the world. With access to billions of data points, we can provide a unique perspective on the most in-demand job skills. We consider both the soft and technical skills employees need to thrive in today’s dynamic workforce. And we explore how organizations can tie learning to business outcomes.
Without further ado, here are skills that matter most to the global workforce in August 2021.
Top skills for August 2021
Conversational and team-building skills
Interest in interpersonal skills like conversation, coaching, and team-building has been growing. This ties into a bigger trend of companies placing more emphasis on company culture. Why is this? There’s a lot of uncertainty about the future of shared office space. This means employers and employees alike are questioning what exactly company culture is. How can we foster it in a distributed workplace? Skills like conversation and team-building can foster a sense of belonging.
Google Cloud certification
“As an instructor on Udemy Business, I’ve witnessed firsthand that businesses are accelerating their cloud journey during the pandemic,” says Ranga Karanam. Ranga, an Azure, AWS, and GCP Certifications instructor, recommends starting with the Cloud Digital Leader certification. Then your technical employees can continue on to the Associate and Professional certifications. “Certifications not only help you gain the breadth of knowledge needed to work effectively with Google Cloud, but they also allow you to validate your expertise,” says Ranga.
Top skills in select countries for August 2021
Looking at the country-by-country breakdown, there’s no single overarching trend. But interpersonal skills like coaching, business communication, and personal productivity were top performers in Canada, the US, and Japan. These interpersonal skills are critical for creating an open and inclusive work environment. “A leadership principle of mine is to be open and honest with others about how I’m doing,” writes Udemy board of directors member Heather Hiles. “If I don’t make a practice of doing that, how would the people I work with feel able to do the same with me?”
Interest in Spring framework is growing quickly in Germany, the UK, and Australia. This open-source application framework is a security system applicable to anything written on the Java platform.
Skills required for the future of work and today
So there you have it — the most in-demand job skills for August 2021.
Did you know? 79% of CEOs are worried about employees’ lack of skills. And 60% of employees worry their current skills will be outdated in three to five years. The pace of change is too quick for you to hire people with the right skills. Today, organizations are upskilling their workforce to reduce overhead costs, maintain business continuity, and drive revenue.
If that sounds promising yet overwhelming, don’t worry. Udemy Business’ course library is carefully curated from the Udemy marketplace of courses. That means your employees have access to the freshest, most in-demand content taught by qualified, deep subject matter experts. Find out why thousands of organizations have partnered with us to prepare their workforce for the future. Speak to our workplace learning experts today.
