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Turning to Learning to Adapt to Our New Realities

As our social and professional norms shift, people are turning to learning to help them get through. In the first week of April, people watched 1.7M hours of learning content on LinkedIn Learning vs. 560K hours in the first week of January -- a 3X increase in time spent learning.

Whether you’re adjusting to a new normal for work-life balance, reskilling for your next job, or honing existing skills for your current role, online learning can help.

We’re together apart, even in learning. Now more than ever, people are sharing and learning from each other on LinkedIn. In March, membership in Learning Groups was up 130% from February. Group members say discussing courses makes them feel connected and energized—feelings that can be hard to find in this time of isolation. It can be more fun and help you feel motivated while giving you an opportunity to connect with like-minded people.

What people are learning is evolving. In early March, courses on “working from home” surged as both employees and managers looked for advice on how to navigate the challenges of remote work. More recently, soft skills that can help people survive, and even thrive, are now trending. For example, in the past two weeks interest in courses on mindfulness and stress management has surged, as has interest in courses on resilience. As we’ve witnessed this evolution, we’ve made related courses available for free. See Free LinkedIn Learning Courses to Help You Navigate the Impact of COVID-19 to find access to all of them, including courses that may be helpful if you’re searching for a job.

Interested in staying on top of what your peers are learning? Each week, we’ll be sharing one skill that is trending, and granting free access to related courses. If you’re so inspired, you can dig in and learn that trending skill too. No pressure though. Our hope is that you use these insights as encouragement to develop skills for whatever you’re in it for—whether that's perfecting your virtual workspace, job hunting, teaching your kids, or engaging in that next difficult conversation.

Trending this Week: Managing Through Difficulty

This week, we’ve seen increasing interest in courses related to “Managing Through Difficulty” . This is not a surprise, given we’re in uncharted territory and more of us are seeking to learn the skills to meet new challenges and stay positive during what is a difficult situation.

To help you successfully manage and ensure self care, we’ve made the related courses where we’re seeing the largest increases free for you to access (until end of June)

Visit us this time next week. If you want to follow along, this time next week, we’ll update this post to share the next skill we see trending and also make those relevant courses free to access. Who knows, maybe you’ll be inspired to learn something new. Or at least you’ll know you’re learning in good company with others that are turning towards learning too.