Small businesses in India are looking to upskill themselves this year and majority of the demand for skilling programmes is being received from merchants in Tier II and III cities, a new report said on Tuesday. Upskilling programmes on digital marketing, finance and fund-raising saw surge in demand while 42% of the learners chose to take up these skilling programmes on their mobile devices, according to Instamojo, a growth gateway platform for Micro, Medium & Small Enterprises (MSMEs).
Instamojo's online skilling platform Mojoversity reported a 9 times increase in the active students (small business merchants) count, and an 11% increase in the number of merchants getting digitally certified in the last two quarters of 2020.
"Majority of the demand for these skilling programmes were received from merchants in Tier II and III cities, with Ratnagiri, Raniganj and Kondotty featuring among the top 10 cities in terms of traffic on MojoVersity," the report said.
In 2020, the platform witnessed more than 40,000 new unique visitors, of which 30% were female learners. 42% of the learners chose to take up these skilling programs on their mobile devices.
Among small businesses looking to upskill, before lockdown, around 30% queries were related to financial discipline and fundraising, which post unlock has gone up to 50%.
Business processes and systems is another category where expert interaction has seen double growth post unlock.
The report said MSMEs now realise that without digital it’s impossible to survive for long and compete in the coming years.
"Be it digital marketing tools or managing accounts digitally, embracing change in the new normal is key to business survival for a sector which is traditionally driven. Upskilling will soon become a regular routine for small businesses to help them stay educated about the nuances of business, and grow better," said Akash Gehani, Co-Founder and CEO, Instamojo.