Helping people in the UK find new job opportunities through reskilling

The global pandemic has created an economic crisis that is challenging the livelihoods of people around the world and forcing many into unemployment. It is also exacerbating existing inequality.

In the UK, ONS data shows that the number of people claiming unemployment benefit rose to 2.8 million in May, and approximately 9.3 million jobs have been furloughed as part of the government's job retention scheme. The numbers are staggering and the impact on many people’s livelihoods will be immense.

New data from LinkedIn finds that competition for jobs in the UK has increased significantly - applications for jobs are three times higher today compared to last year. People working in the sectors hardest hit by Covid-19 are looking to other industries to find work. The share of job applications in Recreation & Travel, Media & Communications and Real Estate from people working in these industries are down 53%, 43% and 35% respectively compared to last year, due to fewer open roles in these sectors and comparatively more available in other industries. 

Furthermore, workers in declining occupations cannot rely solely on their existing skills in the current jobs market. New analysis of LinkedIn data shows that workers in Europe need to acquire new skills if they are going to move into jobs of the future and have better prospects and stability. 

LinkedIn and Microsoft helping UK workers reskill for free

To help people navigate through this very difficult labour market and find new jobs, Microsoft and LinkedIn are giving 25 million people the opportunity to reskill by offering free access to learning resources and interview tools. 

With 690 million professionals, 50 million companies, 11 million job listings, 36 thousand skills, and 90 thousand schools on LinkedIn, we’re able to digitally map and identify in-demand skills, emerging jobs, and global hiring patterns. Using this data, we identified 10 jobs that are actively in-demand in today’s economy and are well positioned to continue to grow in the future. These jobs were identified as having the greatest number of job openings, have had steady growth over the past four years, pay a good wage, and require skills that can be learned online. 

Top 10 in-demand roles 

From today, anyone looking to reskill for these 10 in-demand roles can do so for free by accessing our LinkedIn Learning courses here: 

1. Software Developer - Become a Software Developer 
2. Sales Representative - Become a Sales Representative 
3. Project Manager - Become a Project Manager 
4. IT Administrator - Prepare for CompTIA Network+ Certification 
5. Customer Service Specialist - Become a Customer Service Specialist 
6. Digital Marketer - Become a Digital Marketing Specialist 
7. IT Support/Help Desk - Prepare for the CompTIA A+ Certification   
8. Graphic Designer - Become a Graphic Designer
9. Financial Analyst - Become a Financial Analyst 
10. Data Analyst - Become a Data Analyst 

We’re also making available, for free, the following soft skill learning paths: 

• Job seeker - Finding a Job During Challenging Economic Times 
• Critical soft skills - Master In-Demand Professional Soft Skills 
• Digital transformation - Digital Transformation in Practice: Virtual Collaboration Tools 
• Allyship & Inclusive Conversations - Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging for All 

Helping people land a job

To help job seekers land a new role, we’re also providing free tools and resources to help them with their search:

• #OpenToWork: We’re making it easy for impacted job seekers to indicate to employers and their LinkedIn network that they are ‘Open To Work’ through a simple profile photo frame. Through this update, LinkedIn members can indicate the type of jobs they are looking for and location where they are willing to work.
• Offer Help: We’ve made it easier for our members to share that they are willing and able to provide a helping hand to others in their job search and career development with a simple post. Members can indicate how they can help, whether it’s making introductions, reviewing CVs, or providing guidance.
• Interview Prep: When a job seeker gets to the interview stage, we want to help them demonstrate their skills through effective interviewing - so we’re offering free interview preparation tools, including a newly launched feature which uses Microsoft-AI for real-time feedback on practice interviews.
• Labour Market Insights: To help shed light on the rapidly changing economy, we’re also making available some of the labour market insights from LinkedIn’s Economic Graph. Using this new interactive tool, policymakers and the public can search and download data on which companies are hiring, what jobs are available, and what skills are needed in over 180 countries and regions around the world.

We hope that anyone who is struggling finds this support helpful, and these resources give them the skills and confidence to secure a stable job in the digital economy. 

You can find out more here about the initiative and the resources available. #inittogether