“Some are already employed and just want to brush up on project management skills - I did that - but for those jobs that went away with COVID-19, we want to give them that optionality to see where they can be connected to a new role.” “People can take these courses for many reasons,” Santa Lucia says. And Career Connector focuses on linking course graduates from Microsoft’s nonprofit and learning partners with jobs in the company’s vast ecosystem.
and TaskRabbit, for those who demonstrate proficiency by passing assessments tied to certain courses. For example, the new LinkedIn Skills Path pilot helps candidates land interviews with companies that are hiring, such as Gap Inc. Over the past year, the effort has matured to provide wraparound support to encourage students to make it to the finish line of their various learning pathways and then get connected to jobs. And after last year’s birthday gift to her sons was time spent together at the lake, she says, “now I’m excited to give them both presents and my presence.” She has tackled more debt, refinanced her car and is saving for a house. “This opportunity really changes so much for me and the boys,” Salazar says. She passes her own training on to job seekers spread out across the county, Washington’s largest by land size, giving them tips to help virtual interviews go well. She was accepted for a six-week course and says the training provided the “extra shine” on her resume that - with the help of a career coach through the program - helped her land her “dream job” as a community liaison for WorkSource, connecting businesses and job seekers in Okanogan County along Washington’s border with Canada.
(Photo by Dan DeLong)Īs Salazar sat at home helping her kids with remote school classes, she saw a social media post about Remote Worker Training Certification through the Rural Online Initiative of the Utah State University, an effort supported by Microsoft’s TechSpark program, which aims to ensure everyone can benefit from the digital economy.
Justine Salazar, who took free online classes to help her get a new job so she could work from home during the pandemic, in Oroville, Washington. The effort surpassed its initial goals and is extending and broadening from its urgent origins last year, with an emphasis now on connecting learners with jobs that help them put their new training to use, and connecting employers with skilled job seekers they might not find in traditional networks. Now Salazar is one of more than 42 million people on every continent - even Antarctica - who have accessed free training through the Microsoft and LinkedIn global skills initiative, created a year ago to help unemployed workers during the pandemic. I’m responsible for two human beings, so I thought, well, maybe this is a good time for some training.” I went 13 weeks without unemployment checks, so things were very scary. “I had just taken some of my savings out to pay down some debt, because I thought things were going really well,” Salazar recalls.
Her contingency had become a casualty of COVID-19.
Then the pandemic shuttered salons, and unemployment benefits weren’t initially available for self-employed workers like hairdressers. 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. 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. Hairdressing was supposed to be Justine Salazar’s safety net.