Microsoft launches next stage of skills initiative after helping 30 million people

Join us: Job seekers, nonprofits and governments 

This initiative will bring together every part of our company, combining existing and new resources from LinkedIn, GitHub, and Microsoft.  

Millions are using free skills program to find unexpected career opportunities

Hairdressing was supposed to be Justine Salazar’s safety net. Her father had impressed upon her the need to make sure she always had income options, so she went to cosmetology school while pursuing a business degree and cut hair between other career forays over the years.

The 36-year-old single mother returned to those roots when her two sons needed her to have a more flexible schedule than her job as a property manager allowed. Then the pandemic shuttered salons, and unemployment benefits weren’t initially available for self-employed workers like hairdressers. Her contingency had become a casualty of COVID-19.

Now she is one of more than 42 million people on every continent who have accessed free training through the Microsoft and LinkedIn global skills initiative, created a year ago to help unemployed workers during the pandemic.

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