Women learners contributed to the impressive increase in online learning on the Coursera platform posting a 774% year-over-year (YoY) increase putting the Philippines on top our of 190 countries. This is one of the findings in the online platforms latest “The Women and Skills Report,” which examines the pandemic’s impact on skills and learning trends among women.

The Women and Skills Report compares pre-pandemic enrollment and performance data with trends observed on the Coursera platform since the onset of the pandemic through June 2021. With over 87 million learners and 5,000 courses on the platform, Coursera has one of the largest data sets for identifying and measuring skill trends. The Women and Skills Report includes data from 40 million new learners who registered during the pandemic between Jan. 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021.

“We believe that the new norm of remote work and online learning is setting a solid foundation of a more inclusive recovery,” said Raghav Gupta, managing director, India and Asia Pacific, Coursera. “The encouraging trends from the report are a testament to the resilience of Philippine women learners and their determination to return to work and advance their careers.”

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Trends among women learners in the Philippines align with global learner trends. Though business skills are the most popular, more women are enrolling in STEM courses. For STEM courses, the gender gap narrowed from 38% enrollments from women in 2019 to 43% in 2021. Filipino women are investing in critical STEM skills like probability and statistics (680,000 enrollments from women in the Philippines), data analysis (490,000), and computer programming (480,000), with Programming from Everybody from University of Michigan among the most popular courses.

The report found that more women are also participating in certificate training programs aimed at entry-level digital jobs. The majority of the most popular courses are also from the business domain including Excel Skills for Business (Macquarie University) and Write Professional Emails in English (Georgia Institute of Technology).

Top skills

The report also saw that 56% of new learners in the Philippines today are women, bringing the total number of registered women in the country to 650,000. Top skills among the Filipino women show high investment in business skills. Top 10 skills from the past year include communication (1.2 million enrollments among women), leadership and management (880,000), entrepreneurship (740,000), marketing (630,000) and business analysis (550,000).

Women in the Philippines are enrolling in more courses than pre-pandemic, particularly in certificate training programs aimed at entry-level digital jobs. Women’s enrollments in entry-level Professional Certificates increased from 33% in 2019 to 47% in 2021. These certificates, from industry leaders such as Google, IBM, and Facebook, are designed to prepare learners without a college degree or technology experience for a wide range of high-demand digital jobs.

Businesses, governments, and campuses will continue to play a key role in reducing gender gaps in the digital economy. In 2021, programs where Coursera is used by various businesses, governments and campuses in the Philippines, there were higher shares of registered women learners (44%, 57% and 54% respectively), as compared to global (36%, 51% and 42% respectively). Better gender share is likely to contribute to more diverse talent pipelines for employers.