- Microsoft and General Assembly (GA) have partnered to close the skills gap in the fields of AI
- Through the partnership, Microsoft and GA plan to upskill and reskill 15,000 workers by 2022
Up to 133 million new roles could be created by 2022 due to the new division of labor between humans, machines, and algorithms, according to the World Economic Forum. So Microsoft Corporation announced it has partnered with global education company General Assembly (GA) to close the skills gap in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and data engineering, machine learning, data science, etc.
This partnership will help create standards and credentials for AI skills, upskill and reskill 15,000 workers by 2022, and set up a pool of AI talent.
“As a technology company committed to driving innovation, we have a responsibility to help workers access the AI training they need to ensure they thrive in the workplace of today and tomorrow,” said Microsoft’s EVP and president of Global Sales, Marketing and Operations Jean-Philippe Courtois. “We are thrilled to combine our industry and technical expertise with General Assembly to help close the skills gap and ensure businesses can maximize their potential in our AI-driven economy.”
This joint program is going to focus on three core areas including setting the standards for AI skills, developing scalable AI training solutions for companies, and creating a sustainable talent pool of workers with AI skills.
Microsoft and GA are going to power 2,000 job transitions for workers into AI and machine learning roles in year one. And then they will train an additional 13,000 workers with AI-related skills across sectors in the next three years.
“Artificial intelligence is driving the greatest disruption to our global economy since industrialization, and Microsoft is an amazing partner as we develop solutions to empower companies and workers to meet that disruption head-on,” added GA CEO and co-founder Jake Schwartz. “At its core, GA has always been laser-focused on connecting what companies need to the skills that workers obtain, and we are excited to team up with Microsoft to tackle the AI skills gap.”
In order to create clear and consistent standards for AI skills, Microsoft is going to be the founding member of GA’s AI Standards Board. And they will be joined by other industry-leading companies at the forefront of AI disruption. And over the next 6 months, the Standards Board is going to define skills standards, develop assessments, design career frameworks, and build industry-recognized credentials for AI skills.
And in order to ensure that businesses are able to meet the ever-growing AI talent needs, GA and Microsoft will establish an AI Talent Network to source candidates for hire and project-based work. And GA is going to leverage its existing network of 22 campuses and the broader ecosystem of The Adecco Group (GA’s parent company) for creating a repeatable talent pipeline for the AI Talent Network.
