The What Britain’s Learning Report from Udemy, the global online education marketplace,reveals that 390,000 UK students taking 1.3 million courses are turning to online learning to keep up with the pace of change in working life and manage their wellbeing. This is the first report of its kind on online learning in the UK.

Top report findings include: There have been more than 660,000 enrolments in Udemy’s technical courses to learn to programme, build apps and games, or design websites in the UK to date – technical courses make up 48 percent of all enrolments in the UK; The top 20 work-related courses are dominated by the tech industry as British people take steps to stay relevant in their careers; A quarter of Udemy users identify themselves as entrepreneurs who have started or want to start a business.

One thousand of Udemy’s 18,000 instructors are based in the UK and last year the top 20 earned a combined income of £2.6 million. The report identifies a focus on mindfulness as 58 percent of the most popular courses that are not career related are geared towards positive thinking and wellbeing. Jobs today are changing faster than ever – too fast for the traditional education system to keep up and adequately train the next workforce. The majority of Udemy courses taken (75 percent) are work related as people look to move their careers forward, either in traditional workplaces or by building their own businesses. At the same time, people are building soft skills by taking Udemy courses on topics such as interpersonal communication and time management.

The report identifies the changing face of learning. Twelve of the top 20 most popular courses would not have been heard of a decade ago. As technology moves at such a fast pace, skills such as web and app development are now paramount to British businesses, but not universally taught in traditional education. People need to keep their skills up to date and in order to stay relevant, they have to keep learning long after they leave school. Outside of the workplace, personal wellbeing and self-improvement are high on Britain’s agenda as learners look to improve their productivity, advance their memory and improve confidence. One in 12 of the courses taken in the UK are on self-improvement or life skills including positive thinking, mindfulness and confidence-building techniques.

Dennis Yang, Udemy CEO, said: “The world of work is changing faster than ever, resulting in constant shifts in what people need to know. People are moving online to equip themselves for today’s careers as traditional education and training can no longer keep up. In the last 12 months, we have seen a 140 percent increase in the number of online courses being taken in the UK as more and more people look to shape their future. Students can access the courses they need on the go from any device, to immediately learn what they need.

Whether people are taking job-specific courses or courses geared toward broader self-improvement, we see students continuing to seek skills to help them chart their own career paths.” The report reveals, by age, gender and UK region, significant trends and social insights when it comes to work and non-work-related learning, from the weird and wonderful, to the top regional learning hotspots and a new age of the tech entrepreneur. Brought up on stories of tech billionaires and rapid growth in technology, people of all ages are embracing online learning to improve both their work and personal lives.

As employers report improving economic conditions, focus is on boosting productivity – REC

Three in four (74 percent) employers think that confidence in the economic climate is improving and businesses are changing their hiring strategy to make the most of available opportunities, according to the latest JobsOutlook survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). With 94 percent of businesses reporting to have limited capacity to take on more work without more staff, almost all employers (98 percent) say they will either maintain or increase their reliance on agency workers. Eight in ten (80 percent) plan to increase their number of permanent workers in the next three months.

The regular monthly survey of 600 employers also found that: Forty-four percent of hirers said that they expect confidence in hiring and investment decisions to get better. Almost half (48 percent) have moved at least one temporary worker to permanent status in the last three months. Three in four (73 percent) use agency workers to provide ‘key strategic skills’. Over the next year, employers expect to see a shortage of workers with professional and managerial skills, technical and engineering skills, and driving and distribution skills for both permanent and temporary roles.

REC chief executive Kevin Green says: “Employers are consistently telling us about the importance of temporary workers, especially in areas where there are skills shortages. People with managerial experience are especially in demand, and this points to the need within many businesses to implement changes in order to boost productivity. “More generally we are seeing employers shift their focus away from hiring new staff in order to concentrate on getting the most out of the people they already have. This is good news for workers who should see more training opportunities and incentives being offered, potentially including increases in pay.”