On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a new initiative to address a side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic: job loss. Over 22 million jobs were lost in the United States in March and April of this year. While the country gained back 2.5 million of those jobs in May, chances are that some of these jobs may never come back.
Businesses across the world have been finding ways to automate jobs for years — from the implementation of robots in factories, to business automation software powered by AI. This is great for businesses, which are able to save money and speed up their operations, but it often comes at the cost of losing jobs. The global coronavirus pandemic has only sped up this process as job automation offers a way to get things done without putting employees at risk of infection.
But as software replaces actual employees, new digital jobs open up, and Microsoft hopes to help people get these jobs by teaching them new tech skills. With this new initiative, Microsoft aims to train 25 million people worldwide by the end of the year.
The initiative has three goals it’s looking to achieve: identify what jobs are in-demand and what skills are needed for them; give people free access to learning resources; and provide free job-seeking tools and low-cost certifications for these individuals.
To do this, Microsoft will tap the resources of its subsidiary brands — including GitHub and LinkedIn — as well as its own proprietary tech to make free content available through LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn and GitHub Learning Lab. Job-seeking services and professional certifications will be available through LinkedIn and Microsoft Certifications. Microsoft is also launching a learning app within Microsoft Teams so companies can help employees learn new skills.
In addition, the company is also putting aside $20 million in cash grants to give to nonprofit organizations that focus on teaching tech skills, including Skillful, Tech4Dev, National Urban League and more.
“While this represents the largest skills initiative in Microsoft’s history, we recognize that no company can come close to closing the skills gap alone. Sustained progress will require a renewed partnership between stakeholders across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, and we’re committed to supporting this,” Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote in a blog post.
