LinkedIn Aims to Bring Digital Skills to 25M People With Free LinkedIn Learning Paths

LinkedIn kicked off an initiative last week aimed at bringing digital skills to 25 million people by year-end, free-of-charge, backed by $20 million in cash grants from parent company Microsoft.
CEO Ryan Roslansky said in a blog post, “In the U.S., the unemployment rate swung from 50-year lows to 70-year highs in just three months. And the impact has been felt disproportionately by people with low incomes, women and underrepresented minorities. An important step in accelerating economic recovery and making sure it’s inclusive is providing easier access to digital skills for that hardest-hit by job losses.”
The resources are available at opportunity.linkedin.com, and Roslansky said the professional network used its economic graph to digitally map 690 million professionals, 50 million companies, 11 million job listings, 36,000 skills, and 90,000 schools, identifying in-demand skills, emerging jobs, and global hiring patterns.
LinkedIn zeroed in on 10 jobs that are currently in demand and well-positioned to grow, and it made the respective LinkedIn Learning paths aligned with those jobs available free-of-charge through the end of March 2021.
Content will be updated or revised as needed, and the material is available in English, French, German, and Spanish.
Microsoft Learn is also offering in-depth technical learning content supporting those roles free-of-charge, and job seekers looking for development roles can access the GitHub Learning Lab to polish their skills.
The 10 learning paths are:
Roslansky said LinkedIn has also seen a “strong acceleration in the need for soft skills,” so these four learning paths are also being made available at no cost:
Roslansky concluded, “Today’s announcement is an important start to helping job seekers whose lives have been impacted by the pandemic, but it’s really just the beginning. This isn’t a challenge any one company can address alone. This undertaking requires tech companies and employers, nonprofit groups and government workforce agencies to connect and collaborate. I’m honored and excited to be part of this initiative and will continue to focus our team on ways we can help—immediately and for the long term. By working together and helping those whose jobs have been impacted by the Covid-19 economic crisis, we can make a difference right now in the workforce, in the economy, and in our everyday lives. 
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