While online learning and work from home are not unfamiliar words, this pandemic outbreak has compelled the implementation of online working and learning methodologies at large. With most schools and colleges being suspended, educational institutions are carrying out online classes with the trend ‘Education 4.0’ for the unperturbed flow of education. It is estimated that more than 60 million students are attending regular classes through online platforms across the world. No different from regular education, workplace skill development is also an important phenomenon and the corporate sectors are trying hard to enrich their workforce with new skills to sustain post pandemic industrial revolution. Now, as time has demanded to embrace the continuous learning methodology, it has left the working class with no alternative but to enhance online learning and training to upskill themselves.

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is encouraging adherent learners to utilize this lockdown period by engaging with learning and acquiring new-age industry-relevant skills. Providing more than 400 courses via its online portal ‘eSkill India’, which is partnered with many global leaders of online learning sectors such as UpGrad, SAS India, EnglishScore, and Saylor Academy (USA), NSDC is enabling the skill seekers with ample opportunities of talent acquisition via innovative methodologies like virtual learning and remote classrooms.

Dr. Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC said, “These are unprecedented times and digital learning initiatives are playing a critical role in keeping learners connected and in maintaining continuity. There are a plethora of online resources and platforms that skill seekers and professionals can use to equip themselves with new-age skills in the current scenario.”

While work will always keep us occupied, here are few points to emphasize on the various reasons to choose online learning for workforce skill development in recent times -

• Easy Accessibility: With the availability of easily downloadable online notes, videos that can be played and paused as per convenience, and an immense number of assessments and quizzes, online learning provides easier access to train the learners through step by step guidance. Also, the classes can be accessed remotely from anywhere which makes the online learning portals a more preferable option for workplace skill development.

• Engaging and Unique Learning Styles: As every learner is unique and requires different time and methods to learn, these online portals engage in various innovative learning methodologies to make learning appealing for everyone.

• Industry Relevant Training: The online learning platforms or e-portals design their curriculums based on recent developments in technology. Acknowledging the dynamic industry trends, the e-portals design their training curriculums in such a way to leverage the gap in the skills of the employees.

• Digitally Administered Training: One of the effective benefits of the online learning platforms are that they are digitally regulated which makes everything easier to administer and keep track of. The tight-scheduled corporate sector where the loss of time is not affordable, the technologically enabled monitoring of the employees or learners while signing in and off into the portal, examinations, grades and ranks, reviews, and assessments can be effective and less time-consuming.

• Expert Assistance: Although the trainings can be delivered easily through video conferences, some sessions will definitely require the guidance and advice of industry stalwarts. By keeping the highly experienced and proficient corporate in a loop, these online portals help the learners with real-time conversations with industrial experts through question-answer sessions, webinars, and live tutorials.

The ancient adage, ‘Desperate times call for desperate measures’ by the Greek physician Hippocrates, fits right into the current crucial situation as the human civilization is adapting the best possible ways to tackle the turbulences caused by the pandemic COVID-19. Equipped with developed technologies and digitized techniques, the education and industrial sectors are more prepared to deal with this virus outbreak, than they ever were.