The labor market is changing in 2025. Some experts believe that we’re on the precipice of a new skills-based era, where college degrees matter less than ever before. What matters now? Demonstrable skills that bring real value to the workplace.
Employers are embracing skills-based hiring, a recruitment method that drops the old-school focus on paper qualifications like degrees and prior experience, instead homing in on candidates’ unique skills, abilities, and knowledge. This approach considers both hard (technical) and soft (communications and relational) skills to determine each candidate’s demonstrated competencies and their potential to succeed in a given role.
The result is a job marketplace with new opportunities for career change for employees and employers who benefit from more qualified and diverse workforces and improved retention rates. One of the most popular ways to take advantage of today’s skills-focused job market is to pursue alternative credentials through platforms, like Coursera, that partner with universities and top companies to offer courses and certifications online.
From IT support to UX design and beyond, Coursera Professional Certificates are designed to help learners launch in-demand careers in six months or less.
In addition to helping you acquire the specific knowledge you need to thrive in the workplace and start a tech career, obtaining a relevant certificate is a great way to show any prospective employer that you’re a motivated and independent self-starter who would be an asset in your new workplace.
Why Professional Certificates Are the Fast Track to Tech
Coursera’s online certificate programs are designed by industry leaders to provide flexible, affordable, self-paced learning. Created as a way to fast-track tech careers, certificates typically take 3–6 months to complete if you’re putting in an average of 10 hours per week.
Many of the courses are designed by specific professional boards or organizations, and they teach practical, job-ready skills aligned with real-world hiring needs. Some courses will help you launch a brand new career in a new field, while others are a way to level up by advancing your career or preparing for a certification. Whatever type of course you opt for, you can expect to receive job-ready training that matches the real needs of the kind of employers you’ll be seeking out once you enter the job market.
Even better, all the courses are supported by Coursera’s Career Academy, portfolio building, and employer partnerships, so the skills you learn in your certificate program will translate to connections and conversations with your peers in the tech space, helping you begin your new career path and find tech jobs without a degree.
A World Economic Forum survey found that jobs requiring digital skills make up 6–12% of all vacancies posted online—a share that is steadily increasing.1 In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) anticipates steady growth for a number of jobs in the computer and information technology sector between now and 2034.2
These optimistic numbers make a great argument for the practical applications of Coursera job-ready certificates for anyone interested in growing their career in the technology world.
Career Cluster #1: IT and Cybersecurity — The Foundation of Every Tech Career
If you’re looking to get a tech job in six months, IT and cybersecurity courses are the perfect place to start. There are multiple entry-level roles available in these fields that require skills, not degrees, making them perfect for those changing careers.
These roles are also highly remunerative and in demand. For example, the BLS estimates that the demand for information security analysts will grow by 29% over the next decade, with an average salary of $124,910.3
Oriented toward problem-solvers, detail-oriented workers, and people who find satisfaction in analyzing and troubleshooting systems, Coursera tech certificates for beginners include:
- Google IT Support Professional Certificate: A foundational program for new learners interested in mastering the basics
- IBM IT Support Professional Certificate: Emphasizes hardware, networking, and system administration fundamentals
- Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate: Focuses on network defense, Linux, threat analysis, and more
- IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Professional Certificate: A crash course in Security Operations Center (SOC) workflows and incident response
These courses can act as a step in pursuing entry-level roles or upskilling for positions like IT support specialist, cybersecurity analyst, systems administrator, and more.
Career Cluster #2: Data Analytics and Engineering — Turning Information Into Insight
Perfect for analytical thinkers, spreadsheet enthusiasts, and anyone who enjoys problem-solving, data analytics and engineering positions focus on the nitty-gritty of data in the tech space. Engineers build the infrastructure for data, while data analytics professionals analyze it to extract insights.
Demand for both of these fields is growing. According to the BLS, demand for data scientists will grow 34% over the next decade, with these professionals commanding an average of $112,590 per year.4
When filling these roles, employers seek hires with skills in tools like SQL and Tableau, all of which you can learn through the right certificate program. Coursera certificates for those interested in data analytics and engineering include:
- Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate: Master skills like data cleaning, visualization, SQL, and Tableau
- IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate: Focuses on Excel, Python, and business reporting
- IBM Data Engineering Professional Certificate: Study practical skills including pipelines, databases, and big data tools
These courses contain material that will be relevant to your career as a data analyst, business intelligence associate, junior data engineer, and more.
Career Cluster #3: Design and Creativity in Tech — Build User Experiences That Stand Out
Creative roles are increasingly hybrid, with demand for digital product design continuing to display steady growth. The BLS anticipates that demand for web developers and digital designers, who are otherwise known as User Experience (UX) designers, will grow 7% over the next decade, with these professionals earning an average of $95,380 per year.5
These types of roles are the perfect pivot for creative professionals, marketers, and visual thinkers interested in transitioning into tech, or those who have honed their artistic skills and want to professionalize in the world of tech design. Coursera programs that focus on skills relevant to these fields include:
- Google UX Design Professional Certificate: Study concepts including user research, wireframing, and prototyping in Figma
- Meta Front-End Developer Certificate: Learn practical skills like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for design-to-code integration
- Graphic Design Certificate from the California Institute of the Arts: Learn visual design and branding from the professionals at CalArts
These courses contain material that will be relevant to those looking to work in UX designer, User Interface (UI) designer, front-end developer, and digital designer positions.
Career Cluster #4: Business, Project Management, and Digital Operations
Just as UX design is a perfect fit for creatives and visual thinkers looking to transition into the technology space, business, project management, and digital operations roles work well for professionals from admin, HR, sales, or management backgrounds who want to stay in leadership but transition into tech.
The growth outlook for these types of positions is strong. The BLS anticipates that demand for project managers will grow 6% over the next decade, with an average salary of $100,750.6 There is also a need for HR professionals to upskill for today’s market. In fact, HR job postings requiring AI skills have grown 66%, indicating a strong demand for experienced professionals seeking stability in tech-enabled business roles.7
Coursera courses designed to equip you for these types of business-oriented roles include:
- Google Project Management Professional Certificate: Study agile methods, project planning, leadership, and more
- Intuit Bookkeeping Professional Certificate: Launch your career in bookkeeping by mastering small business finance skills
- SAP Technology Consultant Professional Certificate: Focuses on enterprise systems management, a fast-growing niche
- IBM’s Generative AI for Human Resources (HR) Professionals Specialization: Emphasizes data-driven recruiting and HR tech tools as you learn how to leverage AI
These courses contain material relevant to anyone looking to work as a project manager, business analyst, HR and recruiting specialist, bookkeeper, and more.
Career Cluster #5: Software Development and Cloud Computing — Building the Future
Software developers and cloud computing experts have closely intertwined fields of expertise. Cloud platforms offer scalable, cost-effective, and flexible environments for building and deploying applications, enabling software engineers to focus on innovation.
Coursera’s certificate programs in these fields are designed to help you learn to build the infrastructure of the future. According to the BLS, demand for software developers will grow 15% over the next decade, with these professionals commanding an average salary of $131,450.8
Ideal for logical thinkers and lifelong learners ready to dive deeper into coding and automation, these stackable certificates allow you to take the first step on the career ladder. Relevant Coursera programs include:
- Meta Back-End Developer Professional Certificate: Build skills in languages like Python, APIs, and Django
- Meta iOS Developer Professional Certificate: Learn the practical foundations of mobile development with Swift
- AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials: A crash course in cloud fundamentals for IT professionals
- IBM Full Stack Developer Professional Certificate: Build job-ready skills in end-to-end web app development
These courses contain material relevant to anyone interested in working as a junior software developer, cloud associate, Quality Assurance (QA) tester, and more.
Career Cluster #6: Healthcare and Tech-Enabled Support Roles
Ideal for professionals from healthcare, administration, or customer service backgrounds looking to expand into the tech space, healthcare tech jobs combine human empathy with a growing demand for digital literacy.
The BLS anticipates that demand for health information technologists and medical registrars will grow 16% over the next decade, with these professionals earning an average of $67,310 annually.9
Relevant Coursera courses include:
- Medical Billing and Coding Professional Certificate: Master healthcare data compliance, billing workflows, and more
- Johns Hopkins Health Informatics: Study health analytics and population data
These courses contain material relevant to anyone interested in becoming a medical biller, healthcare data analyst, and more.
How to Choose Your Path
Coursera’s Professional Certificates make tech careers accessible, flexible, and affordable. They’re the perfect way to launch a new career in a growing and profitable field.
Determine which program is the best for you by assessing your interests, strengths, and transferable skills and identifying what motivates you. Coursera’s job-search and career-pathway tools can help you align your interests with relevant courses.
Above all, feel free to start small. One certificate can open doors now, or you can stack certificates and courses for credit transferred into a MasterTrack or degree down the line.
Whatever path you choose, all of these courses offer affordable online training for new careers. By taking the first small step today, you can establish the conditions for future success.
Explore Coursera’s full catalog of job-ready Professional Certificates to find your path, and start your new career in six months or less.
Sources:
- https://www.weforum.org/stories/2022/11/digital-skills-labour-market-future/
- https://www.bls.gov/emp/skills/computers-and-information-technology.htm
- https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/information-security-analysts.htm
- https://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/data-scientists.htm
- https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/web-developers.htm
- https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/project-management-specialists.htm
- https://www.hcamag.com/us/specialization/hr-technology/hr-job-postings-requiring-ai-skills-surge-66/543792
- https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm
- https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/health-information-technologists-and-medical-registrars.htm
