Online Certificate Courses can give a Boost to your Career, Here's Why

In a day and age when companies require working professionals to be reflecting multiple and high skill sets, employees need to upgrade their competencies to be able to make a bright future for their careers. It's impossible to return to college, and more importantly not worthwhile because the Indian education system is anyway failing to keep up with times and most of the curriculum in schools and colleges does not include big data, data science, cloud computing and other such high competency fields.

As a result, the same question haunts every working professional and organization alike, in their journey towards up skilling - Am I/Are we not competent enough and can these certificate courses help train me/my team?

This is where Edu-Tech portals in India have come into play bridging the gap between the demand and supply of skills and competencies. Several players are extending education to empower working professionals/enterprises with better skills that can help them feel more confident or land them with better projects/increase productivity of the organization as a whole. One such player, one of the biggest in the Indian market, Simplilearn, recently undertook a study of over 10,000 working professionals in India and built what it called the 'Career Impact Survey 2016' which has answers (in the form of key findings) to all your questions if you are worrying about the potential of certificate courses in up skilling:

79% of professionals who completed a certification, the report says, confirm tangible impact (like pay hike, promotions etc) on their career growth. Such professionals are almost twice as likely to receive frequent pay-raises than their non-certified peers. 6 out of 10 certified professionals receive a pay-raise within 6 months of completing a certification. Meanwhile, the ratio drops to 4 out of 10 for non-certified professionals. The report also highlights that nearly three times as many certified professionals are promoted as uncertified employees, and the gap continues to widen. Moreover, more than 50% of all certified professionals are promoted within the first six months of getting a certification while the number drops to less than 20% for non-certified professionals. Also, recruiters are three times more likely to shortlist an applicant’s profile if they have a professional certification to their name. 58% of certified candidates have their profiles shortlisted by potential employers. But at 20%, the number is much lower among non-certified professionals.

While these were some of the quantitative benefits, the report also cites 80% of professionals see a qualitative improvement in their career with a certification.

The incidence of improved confidence at work is three times higher among certified professionals when compared to their non-certified peers. This is driven by a stronger work-profile. Certified professionals have an edge over non-certified professionals when it comes to finding fulfillment at work. Over 65% of certified professionals claimed to be satisfied and fulfilled at their jobs. The figure shrinks to 38% for non-certified professionals. In addition, certified professionals also get projects that are more rewarding, indicating confidence in their abilities on the part of the employer. They are also more likely to perceive their work environment as being efficient, productive, and amicable. 7 in 10 certified professionals view their work environment as being healthy and conducive. This results from greater respect from peers and superiors. Among non-certified professionals, the figure drops to 5 in 10.

On undertaking this survey, Kashyap Dalal, Chief Business Officer at Simplilearn said, "We wanted to analyse the career benefits that professional certifications delivered to professionals. It is very encouraging that the results show 79% of professionals felt that certifications made a tangible impact to their careers in the form of salary hike, resume short lists of a promotion at work. The other interesting finding was that the impact is greater in emerging tech areas like big data, data science, cloud, digital marketing and cyber security. This ties back into the fact that career growth in these sectors is more rewarding and as a result many professionals are looking to transition into these sectors."

It's also true that certified professionals in emerging fields get pay raises that are three times that of their counterparts in mature fields, and these are the some of the reasons why it makes complete sense to pursue one of these certification courses if you seek a bright career in these emerging fields.

Image source