Will every job need coding skills a decade from now? An analysis

“Everybody in this country should learn to program a computer because it teaches us how to think.” Those were the words of Apple’s iconic founder, Steve Jobs. Today, his advice is not just relevant for the U.S. but the entire world, especially India.

According to Evans Data Corporation, a global research organisation, there were 23 million developers or coders in the world in 2018 and that number is expected to grow to 27.7 million by 2023. Though the U.S. has the largest pool of software developers, India will overtake the U.S. by 2023.

That’s great news but those people are software developers and coding is their primary skill. What about non-tech people in India? Are they all learning to code? Well, we don’t have a definitive answer to that now but certainly a high percentage of jobs in the near future will demand some level of coding skills.

What is coding or computer programming?

Coding is the language that computers, electronic appliances and smart devices use to carry out specific functions and commands. Your smartphone, smart TV, laptop, your car, IoT devices; all use programs to follow instructions and communicate with the outside world. When you receive an email on your smartphone or when your car tells you the distance left to refuel, or a notification that you receive from your favourite website – that is all coding at work.

We need coding to run all these machines, computer systems, devices and networks of the modern world because machines don’t understand human languages. They only understand a mathematical language called binary code, a complex and infinite combinations of zeroes and ones that is represented by characters, letters and digits in programming language.

Programming languages as C++, Python, JavaScript, PHP, SQL and others convert commands and instructions (characters, letters and digits) into binary code for computers to understand and follow instructions. Without all these codes and programs, the fast, easy and efficient life that we live and experience today would have never been possible.

What’s happening worldwide?

Governments across the EU are encouraging schools to teach children how to code at a young age. The United Kingdom and 14 other countries in the EU have already included programming as part of the curriculum in secondary schools. Researchers in the EU predict that there will be a shortfall of 500,000 skilled ICT jobs across the EU by 2020. More than 85% of job vacancies in the EU demand IT skills today.

Contrary to what many think, especially in India, coding and programming jobs are not on the decline. In fact, jobs for coders and programmers worldwide are growing 12% faster than the market average.

Some non-tech positions that require coding skills:

• Engineers
• Business, finance and data analysts
• Data scientists
• Other scientists
• Artists
• Designers

Most popular coding skills and languages:

• C++
• JavaScript
• Python
• Java
• SQL
• C#
• iOS Family
• PHP
• Ruby on Rails
• Perl

The Indian government also should take cue from other countries in the EU and start training students at the primary level to meet the huge demands of coding skills within the next decade.

Coding skills will not just be a matter of increasing your job prospects, but a way of survival in the near future. Experts predict that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will gobble up as many as 400 million to 800 million jobs by 2030. [5] The implications are frightening but undeniable. That is where your coding skills will come to the rescue, especially in non-tech jobs. Learning to code is a skill that you don’t want to miss in the 21st century.

Learning to code is not as tough as it may seem. You don’t need a computer science or a technology degree to learn to code. Today there are hundreds of good institutes in India that can help you learn to code in a few months. If you are looking for a personal loan to finance your preferred course, plenty of financial service companies can assist you to get the required funds for your course at attractive personal loan interest rates.