ONLINE learning to enhance and upgrade skills among women in Malaysia seems to be gaining popularity since the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic.

       Over half of new learners in Malaysia are women, up from 42% in 2019. The demand gap for upskilling and reskilling among women versus their male counterparts has also narrowed.

       Coursera, in its Women and Skills Report 2021, reveals that overall course enrolments increased from 36% in 2019 to 45% this year. Similarly, the entry-level professional certificate education courses rose from 25% to 32%.

       The report compares pre-pandemic enrolment and performance data on its platform since the onset of the pandemic through June 2021.

       Globally, there are 50% more new women learners this year compared with 2019, and women make up 45% of overall enrolments this year compared with 38% in 2019.

       Coursera says factors that improve gender participation include increasing women instructors, inclusive course design and broader selection of entry-level professional certificates.

       It adds that using machine learning interventions, enabling university experimentation and launching features to support a diversity of learning strategies are also factors contributing to the increases in lifetime enrolments from women.

       The Top 10 skills among women globally are communications with 14.4 million enrolments, leadership and management (11.7 million), probability and statistics (10.1 million), entrepreneurship (9.9 million), computer programming (8.5 million), business psychology (8.3 million), business analysis (7.8 million), data analysis (7.4 million), machine learning (7.4 million) and marketing (7.3 million).

       CLICK TO ENLARGE