Students from tier-2/3 cities comprehensively enrolled in online trainings, especially during the time of COVID-19 pandemic, as it addressed traditional education issues such as lack of qualified teachers, resources, and equipment, outdated teaching materials, tools, and technology, and the huge cost of learning. With schools and colleges shut down, enrolments in online trainings from tier-2 and tier-3 city students grew 15% during the months of March-Oct’2020 compared to March-Oct’2019. Students from tier-3 cities such as Bhagalpur, Jammu, Aurangabad, Gaya, and Prayagraj alone contributed to 40% of the total enrolments. 

38% of the total tier-2 and tier-3 students enrolled in a training to learn a new skill. This indicates students’ willingness to experience new fields, gain additional knowledge, stay productive and creative, and hone multiple skills to work in different industries or start their own venture. Out of all the enrolments, 36% of the students wished to secure a lucrative internship or job in the future. Noticing the rise in work-from-home culture, students focussed on learning in-demand skills that could help them find remote, part-time, or freelancing internships or job opportunities in the future. Programming with python, digital marketing, and web development training were the most popular trainings among students with 26%, 23%, and 22% enrolment rate respectively. 

Participation of female learners also grew by 4.7% in a year indicating that tech-based roles such as web developer, analytics manager, python developer, data scientist, cybersecurity specialist, would see a more balanced gender ratio. Affordable internet plans and technologically equipped devices have helped students from tier-2 & 3 cities to enrol in online courses. 62% of the total students completed their trainings on a desktop/laptop whereas 38% of the students chose to learn on mobile devices. 

There was a surge of 37% in the number of students who purchased 2 or more trainings during March-Oct’2020. In fact, students not only enrolled in multiple trainings, but completed all the modules, assignments, tests, code challenges, and industrial projects on time. The training completion rate rose from 59% in 2019 to 73% in 2020 indicating that practice-oriented, technologically-driven, and interactive ways of learning would shape the education system of tomorrow.