Microsoft Will Help 25 Million People Gain The Digital Skills Needed Post COVID-19

Microsoft Corp. has announced that it is launching an initiative to help 25 million people worldwide acquire the digital skills needed in a COVID-19 economy.

Due to the effects of the coronavirus that have taken place worldwide, 2020 has emerged as one of the most challenging years. Encountering this pandemic for the past 6 months, the world has endured multiple challenges on a global level. One of the key steps needed to foster a safe and successful economic recovery is expanded access to the digital skills needed to fill new jobs. Microsoft plans to provide programs to help those people hardest hit by job losses to improve their digital skills. That would include those with lower incomes, women, and underrepresented minorities.

“To help address this need, Microsoft is launching a global skills initiative aimed at bringing more digital skills to 25 million people worldwide by the end of the year. This initiative will bring together every part of our company, combining existing and new resources from LinkedIn, GitHub, and Microsoft. It will be grounded in three areas of activity:

“(1) The use of data to identify in-demand jobs and the skills needed to fill them;

“(2) Free access to learning paths and content to help people develop the skills these positions require;

“(3) Low-cost certifications and free job-seeking tools to help people who develop these skills pursue new jobs.”

Microsoft is trying to make it accessible for those who may need assistance. In its effort to do so, Microsoft has a place to help people find and navigate all of its offerings. They have made all of these resources accessible from a single location: opportunity.linkedin.com. A job seeker or anyone looking to develop these in-demand skills can start there and will be guided through the learning paths based on the roles in which they are interested.