According to recent data released by Coursera, the global Edtech giant, Indian women are learning online at much higher rates than before, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic began. With 4.8 million registered users, India is the second-largest base of women learners on the platform. While only 37 per cent of new learners in 2019 were Indian women, this rate has gone up to 44 per cent in 2020 and continues to grow in 2021. This clearly highlights the impact the pandemic has had on skills and learning trends among Indian women.
The new Coursera study, called the Women and Skills Report, compares pre-pandemic enrolment and performance data from 190 countries with trends and data collected since the onset of the pandemic, up until June 2021. The study showed that 38 per cent of total learners from India are women, a number which is up from 24 per cent in 2016. The median age of Indian women learners on Coursera is 27 years, which is also four years younger than the global median age of 31 years.
The study also showed that in India, more and more women are enrolling in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) courses, along with entry-level professional courses. Given this increase, the gender gap for STEM courses enrolment has gone up from 23 per cent women enrolments in 2019 to 32 per cent women enrolments in 2021. In entry-level professional certificate courses, these women’s enrolments have gone up from 22 per cent in 2019 to 30 per cent in 2021.
“Our research suggests that gender gaps in online learning narrowed during the pandemic, even as gender employment gaps widened,” Coursera CEO, Jeff Maggioncalda, said. “We are encouraged by how women are embracing online learning to develop new skills that can help accelerate their return to work and promote economic mobility.” Coursera had previously revealed that India is its fastest-growing market, especially with an addition of 7.5 million users since 2020. As of June 2021, out of the 87 million registered users on Coursera, 12.5 million were based out of India.