Big Data Skills on the Rise Overseas
The massive growth of cloud computing, big data, and Hadoop technologies has created a sizable need for talented employees. Fortunately, many students have picked up on this trend, and have capitalized on it by taking various courses in these fields. Additionally, students are not the only ones to pick up on this trend. As companies are looking to secure data and protect against hacks, we have seen a significant growth in offline and online courses.
There is just one (major) problem. The demand for these workers are considerably higher than the supply, specifically in the US market. This is the main cause of why a starting salary in this area could net a gifted employee around $100,000USD per year. However, Gartner also mentioned that the Asia Pacific and Japan area is also experiencing explosive cloud growth. Due to this, more students have been signing up for these types of classes, especially outside of the US.
For years, India has been a hub for technology. Companies tend to outsource their work to India or have their employees take e-courses that are headquartered in India. SimpliLearn is a startup with over 2 million users worldwide. They provide online classes for students looking to build their knowledge in these cloud related areas. 55% of their users are from the US, UK, Australia and the Middle East. From this data alone, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of these students are from outside of the US. LearnSocial is another startup that provides courses and dissections into big data and mobile technology. It is reported that 40-60% of their user base are “foreign.”
While India is a leader in providing these online courses, India itself is no stranger to people looking to expand their skillset. EdX is another e-learning center that was launched jointly with Harvard and MIT. CEO Anant Agarwal added, “In India and around the globe, skilled workforce populations are on the rise, and MOOCs (massive open online courses) and other online courses can offer a necessary competitive edge in any market. Various enterprises believe big data analytics will redefine the competitive landscape of their industries within the next couple of years.”
While many of these startups have been around for close to five years, the e-learning sector will continue to grow substantially year over year for the foreseeable future. The global e-learning market tallied $41 billion in revenue is 2013 and is expected to bring in $51 billion in 2016. Much of that growth will come from India, which is expected to grow at 18.4% until 2018.
