Filipino women are upskilling themselves by enrolling in courses and programs available online amid the pandemic, according to a report.
Coursera’s The Women and Skills Report compares pre-pandemic enrollment and performance data with trends observed on the platform since the onset of the pandemic through June 2021. It found a staggering 774 percent year-over-year growth in enrollments from women learners in the Philippines, the highest recorded increase out of 190 countries.
More women are also participating in certificate training programs aimed at entry-level digital jobs.
“We believe that the new norm of remote work and online learning is setting a solid foundation of a more inclusive recovery,” Raghav Gupta, managing director for India and APAC at Coursera, said in a statement.
Majority of women enroll in business-related courses, with communication at the top (1.2 million enrollments), followed by leadership and management, entrepreneurship, marketing, and business analysis.
The majority of the most popular courses are also from the business domain, including “Excel Skills for Business” (Macquarie University) and “Write Professional Emails in English” (Georgia Institute of Technology).
Filipino women are likewise investing in critical STEM skills like probability and statistics, data analysis, and computer programming, with “Programming from Everybody” offered by the University of Michigan among the most popular courses.
“I earned my computer science degree with only a handful of women alongside me, and while a great deal has changed since then, we still have important work to do to increase women’s representation in technology and leadership,” shared Betty Vandenbosch, chief content officer of Coursera.
Interest in certificate training programs for entry-level digital jobs also went up to 47 percent in 2021, versus 33 percent in 2019. These certificates from industry leaders such as Google, IBM, and Facebook are designed to prepare learners without a college degree or technology experience for a wide range of high-demand digital jobs.
Coursera currently has over 5,000 courses and 87 million learners on the platform.
“Access to flexible, job-relevant education can help women learn the new skills they need to enter high-demand roles and achieve better gender balance in the workforce,” said Vandenbosch.
