In the past, landing a secure job with a guaranteed pension was regarded as the ultimate career highlight. Relatively, people have now become more comfortable with experimenting and stepping out of their comfort zones. Today, if people’s aspirations do not align with their job profiles, they don’t hesitate to take tough career change decisions.
A career change in the modern world has completely transformed the concept of sticking with one job throughout your life. Career change isn’t simple though. Imagine securing a degree in commerce, staying employed for more than 3 years in the same field, and then planning to take up something technical! Earlier, unless you had a time machine, it wouldn’t have been possible to change your stream after class 10th. Fortunately, now with the advent of e-learning and a shift in hiring requirements, I strongly feel that skills are given more importance than a degree.
A career change can be defined as ‘the movement of an individual from one job sector to another’. As per a survey of 10.5k people by LinkedIn, 45% of people change their careers because of the lack of advancement opportunities. This is much higher than the number of people who shift careers keeping remuneration in their mind (32%). Today, lack of growth and learning is the biggest turndown point that compels people to change their career tracks.
Role Of e-Learning In Career Change
Career change comes with multiple complications. It might require you to upgrade your skills or learn new ones while you are already juggling your personal life and current job. In such cases, when enrolling in a full-time course is not possible along with handling multiple responsibilities, online learning comes to your aid. Forbes, in one of their articles, mentioned that as per a report by Brandon Hall Group, learning online consumes 40% to 60% less time than learning the same thing in a traditional classroom.
Now, let’s talk about the major reasons why people prefer online learning over the traditional one in offline coaching centres:
- Saves time – Traditional education programs have always been characterised by their time-consuming, strictly scheduled, and non-dynamic nature. On the contrary, e-learning programs are extremely versatile, short-termed, unbound, and flexible with time. The lessons can be taken as per one’s own convenience, without relying on the instructor. Online training is perfect for people looking for a career change as they allow you to study at your own pace, at any time of the day, and maintain a balance between your professional and personal life.
- Affordably teaches job-centric skills – Employers’ attention today has gradually shifted from the educational qualifications section to the skills one in the resumes. Essential skills for a career change can be learned affordably as you can save a lot of resources that are spent in traveling, purchasing course materials, and taking accommodation in a new city. Technical skill-based training like Android app development takes you through a complete transitional phase of beginner to a skilled developer who learns to develop a new product from scratch within the study span of 4-6 weeks. While dealing with your current job, e-learning allows you to learn and implement new skills on online projects at affordable prices and from the comfort of your homes.
- Interactive and up-to-date content – As per e-Campus News, 59% of traditional students claim that lectures are becoming increasingly “unengaging”. To solve such issues, I will say that online learning packs interactivity and opens up new horizons of skill development with its updated content. It encourages people to learn with fun through various assignments, assessment tests, code challenges, quizzes, and exercises. E-learning adapts to the syllabus or technology updations instantly and combines audio-visuals that make learning effective and engaging, therefore, allows one to get an understanding of the latest industry-relevant job skills.
I strongly feel that overcoming problems like mobility, limited personalised attention in classrooms, and lack of time and resources, online learning not only delivers fast-paced, skill-based, and interactive learning opportunities but also allows the professionals to balance their lives while preparing for a career change.
About the Author: Sarvesh Agrawal is the founder and CEO of Internshala, an internship and training platform