EdTech company Great Learning, part of the BYJU’S group, has released a report titled, ‘Upskilling Financial Impact Report’ a couple of days before the World Youth Skills Day (July 15).
The report reveals interesting trends and insights on the ROI of upskilling for professionals at every stage of their career and emphasizes the long-term financial impact of upskilling. The study compares the returns that working professionals can get from upskilling, based on salary and salary increment data derived from primary and secondary sources as compared to professionals who do not upskill. It further illustrates the financial impact by making an intriguing comparison with asset classes including mutual funds, gold, and fixed-interest securities, among others.
According to the report, for both working professionals and recent graduates, upskilling can result in a significant increase in their annual salary. Data from AON India’s Salary Increase Survey forecast an average salary increment of 9.4% this year. The same survey indicates that the average increment for digitally upskilled professionals will be 12.5%. In addition, the promotion cycle of an average professional is 4 years as compared to an upskilled professional who gets promoted every 3 years as per the same report.
Another inference made in the report is that Investing in new skills fast-tracks career growth and compounds salary, assuring bigger and better returns than traditional assets.”Upskilling provides minimum 18 times higher returns when compared with other asset classes like gold, mutual funds and fixed deposits,” the report says.
Also, an early investment in upskilling by professionals can help them reach their retirement corpus 10 years earlier than others who do not.
The report says that while tech domains yield the highest returns but the others are not far behind. Within Data Science, Business Analyst, Data Scientist and Data Engineer were the top roles learners got offered last year with an average hike of 92%. IT/Software and Pharma were the industries offering the highest salary hikes last year i.e. 96% and 150% respectively. Even though Bangalore saw the most number of placements, Hyderabad companies offered the highest average salary hike of 70%
Aparna Mahesh, Chief Marketing Officer, Great Learning said, “With this report, we have been able to quantify the financial impact of upskilling. People should make decisions about their careers and the skills required to succeed just like they would make financial investment related decisions. This report will help students and professionals realize that keeping pace with technological advancements in the form of learning has measurable financial benefits and when they delay making this investment, they are also losing out on the returns.”
