Partnership with General Assembly will provide 15,000 workers with essential knowledge
Elly Yates-Roberts |
Microsoft and education provider General Assembly (GA) have partnered to close the artificial intelligence (AI) skills gap. The effort will provide 15,000 workers with relevant industry knowledge in AI, cloud, data engineering, machine learning, data science and more over the next three years.
Technologies like AI are creating demand for new worker skills and competencies. According to the World Economic Forum, there could be up to 133 million new roles created as a result of machine and algorithms in industry. Microsoft and GA will prepare 2,000 workers for this job transition in their first year, training another 13,000 in the next three years.
“AI is driving the greatest disruption to our global economy since industrialisation and Microsoft is an amazing partner as we develop solutions to empower companies and workers to meet that disruption head on,” said Jake Schwartz, CEO and co-founder of GA. “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.”
The firms’ joint programme will focus on setting the standards for AI skills, developing AI training solutions for organisations and creating a sustainable talent pool of workers with AI skills.
To create consistent standards for AI skills, GA has made Microsoft the founding member of AI Standards Board, which will define the skills standards, develop assessments, design a career framework and build an industry-recognised credential for these skills.
“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 Jean-Philippe Courtois, executive vice president and president of Global Sales, Marketing and Operations at Microsoft. “We are thrilled to combine our industry and technical expertise with General Assembly to help close the skills gap and ensure businesses can maximise their potential in our AI-driven economy.”