CHENNAI: Mariam Thomas, a social science teacher, took up an online course to change her career and bag a job as a front-end developer in an IT company. Thomas is joining the growing cohort of non-technical professionals joining the IT/analytics bandwagon by enrolling in online learning courses. “In the international school I was teaching in, there was little career development. Also, post relocating to Bengaluru, I took up a one-year foundation nanodegree at Udacity that helped me land a job in a startup, as a front end developer,” she added.

While it is usual for professionals in the IT sector who are looking out to climb up the ladder, to upskill or reskill themselves using online courses, non-technical professionals who want a complete change are beginning move away from classroom training and full-time courses. With availability of online courses, professionals can learn while employed in their previous roles as well. “While around 15 million of young professionals are entering the job market annually, only about 25 per cent of them are job-ready or have required skill-sets. The launch of our foundation nanodegree programme is another step towards democratizing technology education in India,” said Ishan Gupta, MD, India, Udacity Plaforms such as Greatlearning and Upgrad see a 15 to 40 per cent of professionals from non-tech roles and data analytics takes the cake among the preferred courses.

With knowledge on data becoming important, sales and marketing professionals in the same organisation are switching to tech-based roles.

Hariram had transformed into an analytics consultant from a sales role in the same company – Saksoft. Mohan Lakhamraju, co-founder, Great Learning says that tech professionals who contributed to 90 per cent of the total learners, now form 60 per cent with non-technical roles gaining prominence.

“It is not that non-tech folks have not changed careers in the past, post gaining technical expertise, but that involved taking a break. E-learning courses have made more generalised professionals take up online courses,” he added.

Mumbai-based platform Upgrad finds takers for their data science programme from non-technical profiles such as marketing, operations, sales, Healthcare (doctors), professors and research professionals. “These professionals constitute of an average 15 per cent of every admission cohort. The trend strongly testifies how data is no longer just a career opportunity but is a way of (professional) life, helping professionals across different industries to become more intelligent with their decision making, “said Mayank Kumar, co-founder, Upgrad.

