Friday, March 18, 2016
How Do I Master That Skill? LinkedIn, Markle Want To Help
Living online is great fun. But pizza, the scent of an ocean breeze — and some kinds of job training — still need to be experienced in the real world. While LinkedIn won’t help you with lunch or your vacations, the work-focused social network now is piloting a service that helps job seekers get connected with live training programs in their area.
The new service, called Training Finder, is being rolled out in Phoenix and Denver. In a blog post, LinkedIn’s vice president for product management, Allen Blue, said the initiative is targeted at people with a high-school diploma and some or no college. It will “show them relevant training programs in their area; which programs are affiliated with employers; whether or not they’re accredited; the program’s employment rate, cost, and duration; the skills the program will teach them; the jobs they’ll be qualified for when they complete the program; and the estimated salary.”
Training Finder is part of a larger collaboration between LinkedIn and the New York-based Markle Foundation. Last year, the foundation launched Skillful, an initiative focused on redefining the labor market for medium-skilled jobs such as tech support or phlebotomy. The foundation’s goal: creating a better information ecosystem so that employers, educators and job aspirants can get in alignment faster and more effectively. . .