As corporations undertake stricter environmental, social and governance (ESG) rules amid India’s push to attain net-zero emissions by 2070, Indian professionals are making a beeline for edtech platforms to upskill themselves in inexperienced know-how and sustainability.
Edtech corporations like Coursera, Emeritus, UpGrad and Terra.do are seeing excessive enrolment charges for programs associated to ESG reporting, local weather know-how, carbon accounting, lifecycle analyses, and so forth. There may be additionally an rising pattern of engineers desirous to be taught the tech stacks used within the local weather tech business, or product managers studying methods to cut back emissions of their digital merchandise.
Whereas learners are sometimes early-to-mid-career professionals seeking to transition to a sustainability job, a major quantity of demand can also be being seen from C-suite leaders who at the moment are required to have a robust understanding of ESG and sustainability to drive accountable decision-making and form enterprise methods.
An IBM and Morning Seek the advice of survey discovered that 82% of Indian enterprise leaders would search inexperienced and sustainability tech abilities by the tip of 2024, underscoring that the way forward for work calls for a mix of tech, inexperienced and multidisciplinary abilities.
Emeritus has built-in ESG and sustainability in enterprise throughout senior-executive programmes for C-suite leaders, and is seeing fourfold development in its learner base.
Institutes reminiscent of IIM in Kozhikode and Lucknow and Indian College of Enterprise contemplate these as must-have modules of their CEO, CTO, CHRO and CFO programmes, Emeritus CEO Ashwin Damera stated. “We’re additionally seeing explicit curiosity in sustainability management coaching from senior executives at massive monetary companies corporations.”
Coursera is seeing a 14% y-o-y improve in enrolments by Indians in programs associated to environmental science and sustainability.
“This displays learners’ needs to transition to in-demand careers, contribute to environmental and societal betterment, and help India’s sustainability revolution,” stated Raghav Gupta, managing director – India and APAC, Coursera.
The edtech platform is seeing an particularly excessive uptick in programs on photo voltaic vitality, electrical autos and mobility, international environmental administration, and renewable vitality know-how, he stated.
In accordance with information shared by job web site Certainly, job postings for ESG-related jobs have surged by 128% from March 2023 to March 2024.
Eyeing growth
Edtech platforms want to roll out extra programs on sustainability innovation, the round financial system and the environmental and social impression of enterprise.
Local weather training platform Terra.do, which has 16 programs on inexperienced abilities and sustainability, is seeking to double its programs in these areas by the tip of the yr.
“We’re seeing a whole lot of curiosity for programs in carbon accounting, software program stacks in local weather and decarbonising vitality. We’ve seen a doubling of our learner base in six months as people look to upskill themselves within the rising space of ESG,” founder Anshuman Bapna stated.
In accordance with a Microsoft and Boston Consulting Group report, two-thirds of all individuals working in sustainability don’t have the talents or coaching to take action.
ESG is among the many areas UpGrad’s enterprise arm is seeing robust demand for and its management studio, UpGrad Harappa, equips CXOs on these key boardroom matters. The corporate can also be exploring the interaction between ESG and know-how developments, and the way corporations can upskill their expertise throughout ranges, stated UpGrad Enterprise CEO Srikanth Iyengar.
