Digitization will help solve the personnel problem

The term “remote telecommuting” is already firmly entrenched in our lives, not only the usual formats of training and service provision are changing, but also the labor market. Due to the systematic digitalization of all work processes, new professions and the need for professional retraining appear, and some specialties, on the contrary, lose their relevance – the transformation of the labor market is happening right before our eyes.

As Yulia Remezova, director of online learning at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Yulia Remezova, told MK, rapid digitalization is rapidly changing the landscape of the labor market: 40% of the skills that workers have today will not be relevant tomorrow. The key professional areas in the near future will be data analysis and artificial intelligence, engineering and cloud technologies, product development, sales, marketing, content management, etc. and vocational education. The task of educational organizations today is to train specialists of a new type.

According to psychologist and career consultant Svetlana Lenkova, employers are already experiencing a shortage of personnel in certain areas, while the most severe shortage of personnel is observed in the field of information technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, and the most valuable personnel for companies are IT specialists, sales workers, working personnel in production and construction, as well as top management.

How to quickly close vacancies and provide employers with qualified personnel?

Online education can become a simple and effective solution to the problem.

“In order to close the gaps that have arisen, online education is the best fit,” Svetlana Lenkova believes. – Firstly, thanks to various modern courses, everyone can retrain and get a new, in-demand profession without leaving home. Moreover, the duration of training and the depth of knowledge gained are regulated by the listener himself. Secondly, the transition to online allows you to significantly save the time resources of the student, you can not only not waste time on the road, but also take training without leaving your main job. A person can make a decision to change a profession, already having a diploma and new skills in his hands. Thirdly, we must not forget about the benefits for the employer – you can quickly retrain an employee for another specialty or improve his professional skills right at the workplace without losing the personnel reserve. Fourthly, online education is the most economical in terms of both financial and personnel components.

According to experts, students of online courses can be divided into those who study for pleasure and those who want to increase their competitiveness in the labor market. In 2022, the top 5 most popular online learning areas included: a foreign language, sales (PR, marketing), IT, design and management. This list accounts for almost half of the online adult education market. If we talk about the format of training, then the most popular are video lessons accompanied by a teacher online: they were preferred by 37% of respondents. In second place is the format when the student receives a pre-recorded lecture: 24% of responses. At the same time, 85% of students believe that the virtual learning process was better or at least gave them comparable satisfaction compared to a regular lecture. And this is not surprising, because online allows you to get almost 5 times more content than traditional formats with the same time costs.

But is the market ready for remote workers?

When planning to start learning online, many are guided by the desire to work remotely. Statistics only confirm the scale of the spread of online formats in the labor market: if in 2020 in Russia there were no more than 14 million employees working remotely, then by 2021, according to research, this figure has grown to 71 million! This is a fivefold increase in just one year.

The list of the most in-demand areas of online activity is headed by design, followed by web development, followed by programming. In fourth place is working with text (including a translator). Remote professions without special skills and knowledge (call center operators, online dispatcher, online consultant) are also included in the top 10 most demanded positions in the employment market. Here are some of the specialties that allow you to work remotely from home. In marketing – targetologist, SMM specialist, SEO specialist; in the field of design – web designer, computer graphics artist, interior designer; in programming – Java developer, 1C developer, game developer, tester, etc. etc. In the field of “Working with text”: copywriter, translator, writer, editor, proofreader, content manager, as well as a blogger at Yandex.Zen.

You can easily get the skills necessary to get a new interesting profession in online courses. Today, many platforms and educational formats are available on the Internet for every taste and budget – from full-fledged master’s degrees from leading universities (both Russian and foreign) to free lectures and webinars from market professionals. Today everyone can get new knowledge and compete in the global labor market without leaving home. Thus, online education is undoubtedly changing the labor market around the world, and as a result, the economy.