Increased demand for upskilling as new technological concepts come into focus

Web 3.0 is the third generation of the Internet and is expected to be a decentralized version where people have control over their data, more transparent and accessible to all. Gartner defines a metaverse as a collective virtual shared space, virtually created by the convergence of augmented physical and digital reality.

A report titled ‘Upskilling Outlook in India 2022’ by Great Learning, an edtech company, states that with the emergence of jobs in new domains, intent to upskill has already reached a record high with 79% of professionals including freshers, Planning to upskill himself. For higher education and professional upskilling. For example, Facebook recently said it is hiring 10,000 skilled professionals in Europe to help build its Metaverse vision. This demonstrates an innate need for education and development of practical skill sets for India to be proficient in technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Blockchain – important in the world of the metaverse.

The job opportunities arising out of the metaverse are prompting more people to upskill in allied technologies. “The Metaverse is in its early stages; however, with the intersection of AI, VR, Blockchain, AR and 5G, it will be the next big thing in the digital world. The Metaverse will create the most important job opportunities and redefine the future of the web. Upskilling in domains like 3.0, Metaverse, NFT will drive the industry growth,” said Shiv Prasad Nanduri, Business Head – IT Staffing – TeamLease Digital.

According to Gartner, by 2026, a quarter of people will spend at least an hour a day in the Metaverse for work, shopping, education, social activity or entertainment.

To ensure this, top Indian IT services firms like Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Infosys Ltd, Wipro Ltd and HCL Technologies Ltd are also taking new initiatives for the metaverse, which is expected to create demand for specialized talent. “While this is an emerging sector, large IT players have made initial investments on virtual laboratories and are poised to capture a large market share through the opportunity provided by the metaverse,” Nanduri said.

Sarita Digumarati, Chief Learning Officer, Unext Learning, agrees. “We can certainly expect to see an increase in demand for upskilling among professionals and individuals in these new technologies twice what we saw in 2021,” she said.

“Currently, there is a lack of curriculum development around Web 3.0, so new graduates joining the workforce have little knowledge. Enterprises must anchor to grow their workforce and help the government move forward in the emerging tech space. Priority should be given to funding for upskilling initiatives,” said Nirmal Singh, Founder and CEO, Wheebox, a skills assessment company.

Among metro cities, Mumbai has invested the most in upskilling this year, followed by Delhi and Hyderabad. However, according to Great Learning Data, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad are still the top cities in terms of demand for technology and data domains. With the rise in remote working and online hiring, tier-2, -3 cities have also shown a great intention for upskilling with Nagpur, Ernakulam, Mysore, Jaipur and Indore in the list of fast growing cities. “2021 was the year to set new benchmarks when it comes to online learning and upskilling in India and globally and it seems that this ‘interest in learning’ will only continue and grow in the coming year. Hari Krishnan Nair, Co-Founder, Great Learning said, “The growing traction and adoption of upskilling in smaller Indian cities is an indicator of how geographical barriers are being broken down.