Upskilling is the talk of the town. Here’s advice on what students want to unlock

More Americans are pursuing short-term professional certificates on mobile devices to upskill in automation and generative AI in the workforce. These new learning pathways can be a means to level the playing field in the face of more digitally advanced, STEM-oriented workforces found in other countries, declares a report from Coursera.

Coursera, the online course provider, studied the labor force participation rate, human capital index, GDP per capita, internal user data and other third-party indexes across 109 countries and 148 million users to understand the new skills and roles sought by learners around the world.

AI literacy and the rise in micro-credential enrollment provide two clues as to where learners—regardless of country or region—are upskilling. Enrollment growth based on courses has skyrocketed by 1,060%, and learners pursuing professional certificates have also surged by 69%. McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, predicts that some degree of automation will affect two-thirds of all jobs and that generative AI will deliver $4.4 trillion in productivity gains to the global economy.

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The United States ranked 69 in Coursera’s global skills rankings, which measures digital literacy. The U.S.’s biggest concerns are its fewer than 100,000  graduates earning engineering and computer science degrees each year and its one-third of workers lacking basic digital skills—with people of color being disproportionally affected. Switzerland, Japan, Germany, Netherlands and France ranked in the top five.

However, the United States finds itself with a ripe opportunity to course-correct with the surge in learner interest in short-term credentialing opportunities. Mirroring global trends, Coursera noted a notable uptick in generative AI course enrollment through professional certificates, and 40% of these learners are taking their courseload through mobile devices.

Here are some of the skills and job opportunities Americans are craving as they adapt to the changing, digitized workforce:

Coursera also recommended stronger collaboration between business, government and higher education institutions to combat these challenges.