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LinkedIn announced the launch of Next Role Explorer, a career development and internal mobility tool, in a move to support workplace development. Additionally, it is making 250 AI skill-building courses free through April 5.
LinkedIn Unlocks AI Course Catalog
Organizations and employees are tasked with acquiring new skills to adapt to the ever-evolving work landscape brought on by the arrival of generative AI. According to a 2023 report by Microsoft, LinkedIn's parent company, 82% of leaders said their employees will need new skills to be prepared for the growth of AI.
Companies in over 139 countries have made use of LinkedIn Learning's extensive library of courses to upskill their workforce. The company claims 42.3 million seats purchased on active contracts and 16,300 enterprise customers as of January 2024.
Starting today, LinkedIn Learning will offer over 250 free AI courses to help individuals and companies in varying industries, roles and skill levels. Training topics include:
- General AI-literacy — For any professional hoping to achieve fluency in Generative AI and Responsible AI foundations.
- Generative AI Different Roles — For professionals looking to learn GAI skills relevant to their specific role.
- Generative AI Power Users and Tech Audiences — For professionals who need to work with large language models (LLMs) to build or modify AI-powered business investments.
- Generative AI for Specialized Roles — For tech professionals and AI/machine learning engineers who need specialized training to maintain and train AI models.
These learning paths and certification preparatory courses will be available until April 5 and offered in seven languages. Additionally, LinkedIn’s top 10 most popular AI courses are free until July 1, 2024.
Next Role Explorer and Learning Paths to Support Internal Mobility
LinkedIn Learning has also launched Next Role Explorer, a new career development visualizer and personalized Learning Plans, tailored to internal staff. LinkedIn Learning utilizes data such as current job titles, skills, career objectives and engaged courses to recommend relevant content to learners.
“With knowledge from over 400M skills added to LinkedIn annually, we pair the in-demand skills of tomorrow with learning experiences of today so organizations can develop skills that matter at the speed of business,” a LinkedIn representative told Reworked. These learning and hiring tools will work together to match employees with internal jobs and allow them to get discovered by internal recruiters. Next Role Explorer includes features that will be able to:
- Guide. Next Role Explorer assists learners in discovering their next role within the company by analyzing their current title and career goals. This feature offers full customization, enabling organizations to tailor career titles and paths to their specific needs. Additionally, role guides are offered to provide expanded role descriptions, content recommendations, and day-in-the-life videos.
- Develop. Learning Plan allows customizable engagement with and focus on the content that will progress learner’s towards meeting career goals and increasing skill levels. It also offers AI-powered coaching for conversational and personalized guidance.
- Connect. Employees will be able to explore open jobs within their organization and find roles best suited to their skills and goals. Employees can receive notifications for new roles posted, as well as indicate interest for open internal roles.
- Measure. Exportable data and new metrics offer access to role guide views, certifications earned and top internal jobs viewed.
The Key to Organizational Retention
LinkedIn's announcements come at a time when organizations are facing the big R of organizational growth and development — retention. Pew Research Center found that 63% of U.S. employees left their employers due to a lack of career advancement opportunities. Making internal career mobility more attainable, which Next Role Explorer seeks to support, is one way to stem that tide. And with AI skills in high demand, offering employees more ways to increase their knowledge can serve to increase employee engagement while building much-needed skills into the workplace.
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