Microsoft’s First Generative AI Certificates Is Accessible for Free

On June 28 2023, Microsoft and LinkedIn launched the AI Skills Initiative certificates program, a library of free movies for professionals who’re learners in generative AI. This system goals to show individuals how you can apply generative AI to their work.

As of December 2024, Microsoft expanded its library to type the AI Skills Navigator portal.

What are the Profession Necessities in Generative AI program by Microsoft and LinkedIn?

The Microsoft AI Abilities Initiative, developed with LinkedIn, consists of 5 modules. Each module features a video, and a few are supplemented with quizzes, a workbook file, or each. Finishing all 5 modules offers the learner a Skilled Certificates in Generative AI to show on LinkedIn Studying.

The content material introduced within the AI Abilities Initiative certification skews towards Microsoft’s Copilot as a substitute of its main rival, Google’s Gemini.

The Skilled Certificates on Generative AI coaching will probably be accessible in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Simplified Chinese language, and Japanese and will probably be free via 2025.

SEE: Find out how generative AI is transforming cloud security. (TechRepublic)

“We’ve got the chance to offer foundational info to everybody, in all places, to assist us all keep forward of the talents gaps and harness its creativity to retrieve useful info,” mentioned Naria Santa Lucia, common supervisor of digital inclusion at Microsoft, in an e mail to TechRepublic. “As we’re studying, the know-how is studying from us, too, and we’ve the ability to form how the know-how can finest support us.”

SEE: 2025 was the 12 months of agentic AI.

The LinkedIn coaching course is a part of Microsoft’s Abilities for Jobs program, which features a training module for academics, trainers, and facilitators exploring artificial intelligence. Word that a few of the materials focuses on Microsoft Azure and Azure OpenAI.

Generative AI expertise are amongst firms’ high three coaching priorities

Greater than 75% of firms plan to undertake AI within the subsequent 5 years, based on the World Financial Discussion board. Coaching staff to make use of AI and massive information is the third-highest firm skills-training precedence firms plan to concentrate on over this era, as highlighted within the WEF Future of Jobs 2023 report. That statistic consists of generative AI and associated applied sciences, equivalent to machine learning, which fall underneath the identical umbrella.

The significance of AI within the office is additional underscored by Microsoft’s May 2024 Work Trend Index, which found that 75% of information staff use AI at work. Nonetheless, 53% of individuals surveyed who use AI at work fear that utilizing it makes them look replaceable.

Moreover, some staff (45%) are nonetheless involved they are going to lose their jobs to AI. Alternatively, a proportionate variety of hiring leaders (55%) say they’re involved about not having sufficient expertise to fill roles in 2025.

In final 12 months’s Work Pattern Index, 49% of individuals have been involved about AI making their jobs out of date.  On the identical time, 70% are open to the opportunity of delegating some duties to AI to scale back their workloads.

To handle these challenges and alternatives, Microsoft proposes upskilling in AI to remediate imbalances. One ingredient of expertise coaching considerably distinctive to generative AI is the observe of prompt engineering.

“In contrast to different enterprise software program, generative AI tools require the consumer to coach the software itself,” mentioned Shravan Goli, chief working officer at Coursera, in an e mail to TechRepublic in 2023. “With out good prompts, the software gained’t have the ability to assist staff increase productiveness in a significant means, and rising productiveness is without doubt one of the most promising elements of generative AI for staff at the moment.”

SEE: This customizable prompt engineer hiring kit from TechRepublic Premium

He additionally famous that generative AI expertise coaching requires moral oversight, which Coursera considers in its personal free training modules.

“As with all rising know-how, society continues to be navigating its broader implications and managing guardrails,” Goli mentioned. “With a purpose to leverage this extremely highly effective software whereas nonetheless making certain accountable use by staff, I consider organizations have to fastidiously define moral pointers.”

Word: This story was initially printed in 2023 and up to date for 2024.