48x growth in women learners in online trainings over the past 5 years

8th March 2021, New Delhi: Internshala Trainings, the e-learning arm of Internshala, has brought out a report highlighting the growing participation of women learners in online trainings. The platform registered an exceptional increase of 48x in enrollments in the past 5 years. Where only 1,123 women learnt a new skill in 2016, 53k+ enrollments were made by them in 2020 in online trainings. Displaying almost equal participation with male learners, out of all the enrolments, 44% were made by women in 2020 which was only 39% in 2016. 

Digital literacy, the willingness to learn practical skills, and land lucrative internship and job opportunities grew comparatively among women from tier-2 and 3 cities. While only 40% women from tier-2 and 3 cities enrolled in a training in 2016, this number grew to 60% in 2020. 

As per the report, digital marketing, programming with Python, web development, creative writing, and French language were the most popular trainings among women in 2020. Most of the enrollments were made during the months of April to July highlighting that women spent their summer breaks productively by upskilling themselves. Candidates from engineering (B.Tech, B.E, MCA, and similar), management, and commerce backgrounds enrolled in these business, technical, art, and language courses the most. 

Out of all the women that enrolled in an online training, 69% successfully completed their courses. This displays how women actively participated in all the assessments, took learning seriously, and built professional skills and real world-projects that would help them secure a good future in the changing work environment. 

Women, not only enrolled in online trainings and developed their skill sets, but also became a significant part of the workforce. More than 1.9 lac women candidates were hired for in-office and work-from-home internships on Internshala in 2020; this number was only 10k in 2016. More than 24 lacs applications were made by women for content writing profile and the hired candidates received an average stipend of ?5k and highest stipend of ?40k on Internshala, in 2020. Social media marketing, human resources (HR), and digital marketing were some more popular internship profiles among women with 16 lacs, 15 lacs, and 14 lacs+ applicants on the platforms. English proficiency (written and spoken), MS-Office, MS-Excel, and MS-Word were the major soft and domain skills that women learnt and mentioned in their resume while applying for internships. 

Addressing the rising participation of women in online trainings, Sarvesh Agrawal, the founder and CEO of Internshala Trainings said, “We have seen a paradigm shift in the way women have prioritised skilling up, working and learning simultaneously, and increasing their employability in the past 5 years. Women from both technical and non-technical degree backgrounds are choosing online trainings, polishing existing skills, and learning new skills to fulfill the requirements of new-age career opportunities. We have been making continuous efforts to help women learn flexibly at their own pace, manage time effectively, build ownership and self-motivation, polish the habit of collaborating and communicating virtually, get a global or broader perspective, refine their critical thinking and questioning skills, and become a part of the globalised workforce.”