5 Skills Trending at the LinkedIn Top Companies—and Free Courses to Learn Them

After a year defined by change and challenge, many of us have reshaped what our professional lives look like, what we want from our careers, and what we expect from our employers. At LinkedIn Learning, we've been looking at trends at some of today's top companies to help professionals like you grow their careers. We're excited to share the fastest-growing skills this year at the 2021 LinkedIn Top Companies so you can focus on learning the right skills to help you get to the next step in your career journey. 

Technical skills are in high demand across the globe right now as companies look to keep their competitive advantage and develop a track record of success through innovation. This year, employees at the LinkedIn Top Companies grew their skills in AWS (up 42%), Python (up 25%), and machine learning (up 23%)—all skills that are driving innovation in nearly every industry. Employees also focused on building skills to collaborate effectively with their colleagues in home offices around the world like Jira (up 31%) and Scrum (up 15%).

We want to help you learn these high-growth skills so no matter your goal, you can get there faster. For each of the trending skills, we unlocked two free courses —you can watch them for free until May 31st, 2021.

Free courses to learn Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Today, companies are built and run on the cloud. They need talent who have the skills to help them drive technical architecture, design, and delivery of cloud systems. But with AWS now listing over a hundred different service offerings, getting a holistic sense of the platform can seem daunting. These courses can help.  

• AWS Essential Training for Developers with Jeremy Villeneuve—learn key AWS services, how to decide which will fit your use case, and how to host applications within AWS.
• Choosing a Cloud Platform for Developers: AWS, Azure and GCP with Xian Ke—Understand the benefits and challenges of developing in the cloud with the top three cloud service providers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), as well as how to establish goals and timelines for your cloud migration.

“I’ve been trying to take AWS courses to keep up with trends and cloud fundamentals. I didn’t have any AWS knowledge prior to taking courses and now I feel confident in using it.” -Brent Simpson

Free courses to learn Jira

Every company needs software to track their work and report progress on their strategic initiatives. Planning projects, assigning tasks, tracking progress, and releasing results can all be managed in Jira, the popular and collaborative software for development teams. These courses can help you leverage the power of Jira software to gain visibility, engage with teams, and help drive results. 

• Learning Jira Software with Robert Anthony—Learn the fundamentals of using Jira, including how to create tickets, use advanced search, and set up workflow boards to organize work, through several challenge-and-solution practice scenarios.
• Jira: Basic Administration with Rachel Wright—Master the tools and best practices to successfully administer and customize a Jira instance, including how to manage users, roles, and groups; create projects; and build new workflows from scratch.

Free courses to learn Python

Scientific computing skills are held by data science professionals, engineers, and software architects. Companies need more professionals that can develop machine learning models, algorithms, and apply statistical and analytical approaches to large data sets. Due to its power and simplicity, Python has become the programming language of choice for many large organizations and LinkedIn Top Companies. Get the latest Python skills with these courses. 

• Python Essential Training with Bill Weinman—Learn how to use Python 3 to create well-designed scripts and maintain existing projects. 
• Python for Data Science Essential Training Part 1 with Lillian Pierson—Gain hands-on experience with Python through a practical data science project: a web scraper that downloads and analyzes data from the web.

“I’ve taken a couple of Python and PowerShell scripting courses to transition to a role where I will be using Python more. I’m going from a supporting IT role and moving into a development role and courses are helping me gain the scripting skills I need to be set up for success in this role.” -Jennifer Nicola

Free courses to learn Machine Learning

Companies are tapping into the power of big data with machine learning -- an integral component of artificial intelligence. They're doing things like speech recognition, image processing, recommendation systems, and even self-driving cars. They understand how to leverage the power of that data and use the appropriate machine learning data to deliver powerful solutions to complex business problems. Our study showed Machine Learning up 23%. Learn about artificial intelligence and how to leverage machine learning with these courses:

• Artificial Intelligence: Tools and Concepts with Doug Rose—Learn how AI can automate customer service, business logistics, sales, and many other areas of the business, and gain an understanding of top AI tools, including TensorFlow, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure. 
• Big Data in the Age of AI with Barton Poulson—Learn big data’s relationship to AI, data science, social media, and the Internet of Things (IoT), techniques to analyze it, and ethical issues behind its use.

“If you really want to have an edge over your peers, LinkedIn Learning can be your secret weapon. You'll be learning new strategies that are currently been adopted by successful companies around the world. I've been using LinkedIn learning to advance my skill set and knowledge around Machine Learning and AI related disciplines as they apply to Digital Marketing.” - Kelechi Ibe

Free courses to learn Scrum 

If you've spent any time in the project management world, you've likely heard of Scrum—the popular framework for managing complex processes. Whether you're looking to learn more about Scrum or preparing for your Scrum Master test, these courses can help. 

• Scrum: The Basics with Kelley O’Connell—Gain a basic understanding of what scrum is and how to start implementing it at work, including how to manage and measure projects, and set manageable improvement goals.
• Cert Prep: Scrum Master with Kelley O’Connell—Master the foundational knowledge you need to pass several of the leading scrum master exams and become more marketable in your field. 

Taking the next step in your career can be daunting. We hope the 2021 LinkedIn Top Companies list and the courses to learn the trending skills at these companies will serve as a go-to resource for professionals at every stage, from job seekers to career growers. Check out the courses to learn these skills for free until May 31st, 2021.

Methodology

We looked at employees at all the parent companies in the LinkedIn Top Companies list in English-speaking countries (United States, Canada, UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia). Among the top 100 skills added by these employees to their LinkedIn profiles, we identified the skills that had the greatest growth in the number of employees with the skill from January 2020 to December 2020. We exclude common skills which are possessed by a majority of LinkedIn members, such as Communication.