Levelling up knowledge: how the pandemic has increased the demand for online courses

For example, the Skillbox platform, in just six months, was able to quadruple its audience, and the Uchi.ru platform gained 240 thousand new students, which exceeded the platform's average by 8 times.

Not only schoolchildren and students but also adults have increasingly turned their attention to online education. Through online courses, many professionals are upgrading their qualifications or learning new professions related to digital technologies.

Skillbox notes that, in general, people have begun to learn more and become interested in new disciplines such as IT, management, and finance. During the lockdown, students began to do more homework, and the demand for webinars increased by 150%.

Since many people lost their jobs or were furloughed during the pandemic, people were also able to take those courses that had been postponed for later due to time constraints. Thus, one of the reasons for the growing popularity of training was the additional free time that most of the population now found themselves with.

Skillbox saw a 30% increase in the demand for courses in programming and game creation. The creators of the platform explain this by the fact that people in isolation have been actively using technological solutions and products that provided services and entertainment at home. This, in turn, has generated interest in the IT niche. Additionally, in times of crisis, people tend to seek out a field that has not been impacted been affected by external circumstances. IT demonstrates incredible stability and has many niches - from management to design and development.

It is also noteworthy that during the quarantine period, the popularity of retraining programs for medical professionals has increased. According to experts, this is due to the desire of experts to prepare for the risks that coronavirus poses to health and healthcare system in general.