In 2020 Microsoft, LinkedIn and GitHub came together and committed to upskilling over 25M displaced workers who had been impacted by COVID-19. By December 2021, more than 60M people had engaged in the Global Skills Initiative. The program has been extended until 30 June 2022.
WHY SKILLING?
Between Microsoft, LinkedIn and GitHub, these organisations have access to over 400,000 digital, on-demand learning materials. Being able to unlock these in a meaningful way to help individuals who had lost jobs or their livelihood, pivot to a new career, was one of the contributions that they could make to society.
SKILLING IN WHAT?
Simply providing 400,000+ learning items to an individual during a time of crisis was never going to work. People were looking for guidance, skilling that would make a difference to their ability to secure a new job and something that was quick.
To land on the right learning items, we used the power of LinkedIn data to identify 10 roles globally that were in demand and then got to work mapping learning in a thoughtful way to help people explore a new career.
Ever wanted to develop Project Management skills? Well now you could not only develop the skills but skill up to start a new career with the "Become a Project Manager" learning path. All freely accessable to anyone who needed a skills boost.
...BUT IT WASN'T JUST TECHNICAL SKILLING
A suite of 13 human skills were compiled to help individuals hone the critical skills, from building emotional intelligence to effective listening and the ability to persuade.
A Career Explorer tool was developed by GitHub based off LinkedIn's Economic Graph data. This tool allowed individuals to discover new career paths they most closely aligned to. People could use the Career Explorer to see how the skills they already had mapped to thousands of jobs and a variety of careers. The way it worked was that you would enter your most recent job, and the live interactive tool would surface new job opportunities that could be a good fit and all the learning resources you needed to help you make a career pivot.
LANDING JOB OUTCOMES IS REALLY WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT
It's always nerve-wracking to go to an interview, but having to do it online, for a job you really don't have a whole lot of lived experience in, can really make you doubt yourself. That's where the Practice Interview Prep Tools really come in to support. Helping people to improve with instant feedback on interview responses (powered by AI) and learn if they're speaking too fast, using too many filler words, and more. This tool helps people to:
Learn how to answer top interview questions with advice from experts and hiring managers.
Build your confidence by privately practicing your answers.
Increase your chances of landing the job with new interview prep for in demand roles in fields like project management, marketing and sales.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Well, what we learned through this experience is that there are a lot of wonderful workforce skilling organisations that have created unique learning experiences to help people pivot from their previous career into a new, sustainable career. In Australia Microsoft have forged strong partnerships with organisations like Adecco, Modis Tech Academy, LHH, JobAccelerator, Randstad, Generation Australia, With You With Me, DDLS - all of which have designed amazing learning experiences that are producing job outcomes with graduates spilling into organisations like Infosys, Accenture, Tata Consulting, ANZ Bank, and Microsoft (just to mention a few).
So we are not stopping what we have started, we will continue to skill our Nation with a view to support the evolution of our talent ecosystem in alignment with growth industries, like technology,and in partnership with some of the most thoughtful and considered learning providers across the country.
GSIvNext coming soon!
Want to learn more? Contact our Principal Consultant, Narelle Stefanac who led the Global Skills Initiative for Australia & New Zealand
Program Lead: Narelle Stefanc
Title: Principal Consultant
M: +466 470 689