MANILA - The coronavirus pandemic has altered how businesses work which required employees to possess both digital and soft skills, giving rise to new popular courses this year, LinkedIn said Wednesday.

Professionals are also spending more time on the platform to upskill, with traffic growing 3 times in July 2020 compared to the same period last year, LinkedIn said in statement.

The top 10 most popular courses professionals take this year:

• Time management: working from home
• Strategic thinking
• Remote work foundations
• Learning python
• Developing your emotional intelligence
• Excel essential training (Office 365)
• Communicating with confidence
• Cert Prep: Project management professional
• Project management foundations

Digital and soft skills are reflected in the top 10 with 5 out of the total are soft skills, according to LinkedIn's Most Popular Courses which rounded up data from July 2019 to July 2020.

"Now more than ever, workers need to pick up not just relevant digital skills, but also the necessary soft skills to help them in their day-to-day work functions. And this will remain true as we move forward. COVID-19 not only has accelerated the adoption of remote working, but it looks like it is here to stay," LinkedIn said.

According to LinkedIn data, the Philippines is one of the leading regions for growth in remote job postings.

Top remote jobs in the Philippines:

• Freelance writer
• Data encorder
• Accountant
• Data entry clerk
• Technical support engineer

The gig economy has seen a surge in the Philippines after the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdowns forced millions of Filipinos to stay at home.

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