Course Trends in 2021: A Year in Review and Look to the Future

Cou r se Tr en ds in 2021: A Year in Review an d Look t o t h e Fu t u r e

After the crazy ride that was 2020, you might be

Con t en t Over view :

feeling a bit unsure about how to plan learning in 2021.

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training

Whether you are thinking about your own learning path, putting together an L&D strategy

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for your entire company, or helping your team

We've gathered and analyzed data about the training we list on findcourses.com to identify

Top 10 popular categories in 2020

set development goals for the year, we hope that the insights we share here will be of some help.

The sudden shift to online

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Category Trends: Soft Skills

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Category Trends: Health and Safety

which course types and categories saw growth or remained strong in 2020 vs. the previous year.

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Category Trends: Remote Work

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Category Trends: Outlook 2021

As we share these trends we'll let you know if we think they are here to stay for 2021.

A qu ick sh if t t o on lin e t r ain in g For many of us, the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns had an immediate impact on how we learn and work we needed to start doing all of it online.

When we surveyed our site users back in March to

In the second half of 2020,

find out how COVID-19 was affecting their learning,

76% of in qu ir ies went to

course type preferences were already changing. We found that 61% of training buyers were more likely to

courses with an on lin e

book online training for their employees and 43% of

delivery option

individual learners who usually preferred in person training were more likely to choose an online course.

In their 2020 Workplace Learning Report, Linkedin Learning found that 57% of L&D pros planned to increase their online learning budgets while 38% planned to spend less on instructor-led training Many of the training providers we work with were quick to respond, adapting their in-person courses for online delivery. A number of them also started producing complimentary webinars to help people keep learning regardless of their current financial situation.

This significantly increased demand for online training coupled with more available options resulted in 76% of course inquiries throughout the second half of 2020 going to courses with online delivery options.

During the same period in 2019, only 11% of inquiries made through findcourses.com went to courses that were available online.

Ou t look 2021 As you read this, COVID-19 vaccines are being

For now, we don?t see this online learning trend going anywhere.

distributed. However, experts predict that it will be

This year, plan to do your learning online and take

several months before social distancing can safely

advantage of the expertise in virtual training delivery

end.

that training providers spent most of 2020 developing.

2021 Course Trends | 2

Top cou r se cat egor ies in 2020 Here are the top 10 most popular categories on

To the left of each category, you can see how the

findcourses.com of 2020 by views and by inquiries.

placement changed from 2019.

Views refers to the number of times that users have

As you can see, only two categories retained the

viewed courses within these categories.

same positions year-on-year and only one new

Inquiries refers to the number of times that users

category made it onto this list in 2020.

who have chosen to request more information about

Next, we'll delve into some trends we saw last year -

courses in these categories.

discussing some categories in greater detail.

Top 10 by cou r se view s

Top 10 by cou r se in qu ir ies

1. Leadership

same

1. Leadership

2. Communication Skills

same

2. COVID-19

new

3. Health and Safety

+45

3. Human Resources 4. Auditing and Quality Management

+4

+1

-1

4. Communication Skills

-3

5. Sales

+3

5. Emotional Intelligence

+3

6. Management Skills

-2

6. Sales

-1

7. Emotional Intelligence

-2

7. Management Skills

-1

8. Engineering and Maintenance

+2

9. Organizational Development

+42

10. Business and Management

+4

8. Business and Management

+2

9. Coaching

+9

10. Human Resources

-9 2021 Course Trends | 3

Cat egor y t r en ds: Sof t Sk ills

Cr it ical t h in k in g grew 65% in view s and 108% in in qu ir ies made about courses in this category

With uncertainty the new normal in 2020, we weren?t

highest priority for L&D professionals in 2020 based

surprised to see that many of our visitors were interested

on a report by Linkedin Learning.

in investing their time and money towards developing

There was clearly a high demand for these

their soft skills - abilities that are highly in demand by

categories. This combined with the large number of

recruiters and beneficial in any role and industry.

excellent courses in both of these categories that we

In 2019, our most viewed categories were leadership and communication skills, and these two categories

have on findcourses.com contributed to them keeping their positions in 2020.

remained at the top in 2020. We know that these two

We also saw some new soft skills categories come

soft skills were also two of the three that were the

into focus for 2020. Our ethics category really took off with 1356% growth in views and moving up 86 places taking it from the 146th most popular

"Strong leadership, creative, and communication skills are always in demand" - Linkedin Learning

category on the site to the 57th most popular.

Critical thinking was another standout soft skills category, growing 65% in views and 108% in the number of inquiries site users made about courses in the category. It also moved up 18 places in popularity.

2021 Course Trends | 4

Cat egor y t r en ds: Healt h an d Saf et y Unsurprisingly, categories related to health and safety were in high demand in 2020. Our main health and safety

View s of h ealt h an d saf et y t r ain in g cou r ses sin ce 2017

category grew 51% in views, 939% in inquiries, and 22 positions in popularity.

We attribute part of this growth to our new COVID-19 category as many of these courses overlap into both. When the pandemic hit, we thought it was important to add free COVID-19 courses from reliable sources like the WHO. It seems that this was also important to users as this category ended up being the 15th most popular on the site for the year.

Our COVID-19 category, created in March 2020, ended up being the 15t h m ost popu lar for the year.

2021 Course Trends | 5

Cat egor y t r en ds: Rem ot e Wor k It?s nearly impossible to discuss 2020 without bringing up remote work. According to Gallup, 62% of Americans have worked from home during the crisis and many of us still are and will likely continue to do so well into 2021.

While a survey by Buffer found that 98% of respondents would like the opportunity to work from home at least part of the time for the rest of their careers, the transition to remote work has been a challenge for both employees and employers.

"62% of employed Americans have worked from home during the crisis."

- Gallup Companies who had never before supported remote employees needed to scramble to get the right tools in place, managers needed to quickly discover how to facilitate remote communication and keep employees on track, and many employees were suddenly required to juggle working from their kitchen table

Our vir t u al t eam s category

with childcare and homeschooling.

grew 1,615% in view s, making it our 14t h m ost popu lar category in 2020.

It?s no wonder that 2020 was the year that our long-standing virtual teams category really took off. It grew by 1615% in views, 950% in inquiries, and 97 places in popularity - making it our 14th most popular category in 2020.

2021 Course Trends | 6

Cat egor y t r en ds: Ou t look 2021 We've reviewed 2020, but what does the future hold?

employees - you are investing in skills that will keep

Read on for our 2021 category trend predictions in soft

you agile and ready for anything the future holds.

skills, health and safety, and remote work.

Soft Skills

Health and Safety Interest in COVID-19 courses has been declining since

We have no doubt that professionals will continue to

August. We expect this trend to continue, and

invest in developing soft skills in 2021. We?ve seen

sincerely hope that we will no longer need this

steady growth in interest in these topics for years

category by the end of 2021.

now, and experts at companies including CLO and Training Industry have already highlighted their importance in 2021.

However, views of health and safety courses in general held fairly steady throughout 2020 with an upward trend at the end of the year. Due to this, we

The need for great leaders and communicators isn?t

think that health and safety courses will continue to

going anywhere. We expect to see leadership and

be popular in 2021. We do not predict another year of

communication skills remain as two of our most

51% growth, but we think interest will hold steady and

popular course categories in 2021 and beyond.

might see slight growth.

Research has shown that critical thinking skills are a far better indicator of making good decisions than raw intelligence. Unfortunately, only 5% of K-12 schools teach critical thinking. That means that a large percentage of professionals are potentially missing out on this important ability. We hope to help even more people connect with training to develop this soft skill in 2021.

Remote Work Interest in the virtual teams category peaked in May 2020, then declined and has been holding fairly steady since July 2020. It?s clear that the height of its popularity occurred during the months that companies were transitioning to remote work and that interest has declined since employers and employees have adjusted to remote work. However,

Another soft skill category that we expect to see a

since numbers have remained consistent since July,

high demand for in 2021 is emotional intelligence.

we believe that this category will never go back to it?s

Though we did see a slight decrease in popularity for

pre-2020 obscurity.

this category in 2020, the need to understand others emotions, be empathetic, and manage relationships has definitely not declined. Many experts see emotional intelligence as a key development area for leaders, but the truth is that emotional intelligence

The COVID-19 pandemic has normalized remote work, and it?s likely that a high percentage of teams will remain virtual at least part of the time after the pandemic ends.

benefits everyone. It?s even been shown to improve

Whatever 2021 has in store, we'll be here to help you

safety in manufacturing environments.

find the training you need to keep moving forward.

By building soft skills - your own or those of your

2021 Course Trends | 7

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We list individual and corporate training courses from thousands of top training providers, making it easy for you to find, compare, and book the right training for your needs.

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