The tech industry's online courses can reveal a lot about what IT skills are in demand and what career paths look like today.
Udemy is an online learning platform that collects quarterly data about which courses are most in demand on its platform. We included the technology and IT capabilities from their Q1 2024 report. Discover these in-demand IT skills to help you decide where your tech career should go next.
The 10 emerging technology skills in the world
The top 10 global emerging tech skills topics accessed on Udemy are:
- Informatica PowerCenter.
- Microsoft Playwright.
- 1Z0-071: Oracle Database SQL Certified Associate certification.
- CompTIA Security+ certification.
- DP-203: Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Associate Certification.
- SAP FICO.
- Data structures.
- Java algorithms.
- HashiCorp Terraform Associate Certification.
- Selenium web driver.
“Certifications are an incredibly powerful currency in the tech community,” said Scott Rogers, senior vice president of instructor and content strategy at Udemy, in an email to TechRepublic. “They are widely recognized by companies around the world, which increasingly require certification for key technical roles in cloud computing, project management and security.”
According to Rogers, more than 10 million people signed up for IT certification courses on Udemy last year.
SEE: Educating yourself could make you the right candidate for the job the IT talent gap in Australia. (TechRepublic)
Technical skills that appeared in the top new releases on Udemy that reflect the technology industry include:
- Git.
- Oracle SQL.
- C#.
- Amazon AWS and AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner.
- Python.
“We've seen customers use Udemy to support certification preparation and help IT professionals significantly improve their chances of passing certification exams,” said Rogers.
English as a second language, sustainability and ChatGPT were also popular topics
One of Udemy's most popular courses is the TOEIC test, an English as a second language standard for businesses. Udemy attributes this to multinational companies using English as their primary language. Udemy learners were also interested in Spanish, with the language ranking sixth on the list of top 10 emerging professional skills worldwide.
The full list is:
- TOEIC tests.
- Accounting.
- Marketing strategy.
- Supply chain.
- Business analytics.
- Spanish language.
- Information security.
- Deep learning.
- Generative AI.
- Financial analysis.
Courses on environmental, social and governance issues were very popular. Overall, Udemy saw a 3,128% increase in ESG course consumption year-over-year. Only one topic was more popular than ESG: ChatGPT. (Interest in ChatGPT-related courses increased 5,226% in the first quarter of 2023 alone.) ESG-related topics available as courses on Udemy include corporate sustainability, DEI, and business cases for corporate ESG.
Technical skills in demand according to LinkedIn, Indeed, CompTIA
Udemy isn't the only place to find it IT skills coursesand the skills popular on Udemy aren't the only skills employers are looking for.
LinkedIn listed artificial intelligence and machine learning as the most in-demand IT skills in 2024followed by data science and cybersecurity. As a matter of fact found that generative AI was the highest-paying field in the industry. The Computer Technology Industry Association lists the following as the five most in-demand IT skills in 2024:
- Artificial intelligence.
- Technical support.
- Networking.
- Cloud computing.
- Linux.
Technology is a growing and lucrative field
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were nearly 364,000 open job postings for tech jobs as of December 2023. Computer and information technology jobs are expected to increase faster than most jobs from 2022 to 2032, and the average annual salary in this field was $104,420 as of May 2023.
