Microsoft & LinkedIn Are Offering Free Training For Work-At-Home Jobs; Is It Worth Looking Into?

Due to mass unemployment from Covid-19 shutdowns and the assumption that work-from-home jobs will become more common because of it, Microsoft has partnered with LinkedIn to offer free training courses in 10 in-demand career fields.

It's important to note exactly what this is, namely that it isn't meant to pipeline you into a job (or even into a formal qualification). Microsoft has created what it calls "LinkedIn Learning Paths,"  presumably meant to cover what you would learn in normal paid training for these positions. Most of these paths would end with you taking some sort of certification exams. Microsoft is offering discounts on some of its own certifications as part of this program, but only for its own software like Microsoft 365 and Azure.

It may offer some connection with recruiters through LinkedIn once you complete a Learning Path, but this part is not entirely clear.

The 10 careers you can get free training in are:

• Software Developer
• Sales Representative
• Project Manager
• IT Administrator (CompTIA Network+ certification prep)
• Customer Service Specialist
• Digital Marketing Specialist
• IT Support / Help Desk (CompTIA A+ certification prep)
• Data Analyst
• Financial Analyst
• Graphic Designer

The training will be available through the end of March 2021.

Not A Crisis Measure

The first and most important thing to note about this training is that none of it is a "quick fix" for an immediate income crisis. If you don't know how you're going to pay the rent next month, nothing here is going to help with that.

I would guess the fastest you could go from completing training to employment to a paycheck would be a few months, and that's for the simplest jobs (like customer service and sales rep). Some, like software developer, will take years of training before you're employable.

There's also the question of credentials. As well-intentioned as this program might be and as much as a need might exist, I don't think anyone is going to hire a financial analyst out of a LinkedIn course.
If you were looking to go in one of these directions anyway, though, this could make for a good launching point at no cost.

Freelance Potential?

I think some of this might also work better as a transition to being a freelancer in terms of getting paid as quickly as possible. Once you learn the skills, throw up a portfolio and trade on what you can demonstrate that you can do rather than formal credentials. I could see this approach working for digital marketing and graphic design at the very least.


If you're interested in any of these programs, check out Microsoft's blog post to get started. You'll need a LinkedIn account first.