Skillsoft and Codecademy: Equipping today’s workforce with the skills for tomorrow

By now, we all know that technology has forever changed the way we work. Yet many organizations are struggling to find the technical talent or develop the workforce skills needed to succeed in today’s digital economy. According to McKinsey, nearly nine in ten executives and managers say their organizations either face skills gaps already or expect gaps to develop within the next five years. And according to the World Economic Forum, closing the skills gap could add US$11.5 trillion to global GDP by 2028.

While the need for technical skills has never been higher, the opportunities to learn those skills have also never been more accessible. That wasn’t always the case– and as Codecademy officially joins the Skillsoft family and we embark on this next chapter together, I want to share a bit more about Codecademy’s story and mission.

The Codecademy story begins in a Columbia University dorm room in 2011. I was an undergraduate studying political science at the time, but after working part-time for a few tech startups, I quickly realized that the skills needed in the workforce weren’t being taught in most classrooms. After struggling to teach myself how to code, I knew there had to be a better, easier way for people to learn these sought-after technical skills – which is exactly what my co-founder and I set out to create with the launch of Codecademy. I decided to drop out of school, and just a few months later, we went live with our first three lessons in JavaScript.

Today, Codecademy’s curriculum spans over 150 courses, 700 projects and quizzes, and 1,000 lessons across domains like web development, data science, cybersecurity, and more. We designed the Codecademy learning experience to be interactive and self-paced, so that our users can apply their technology skills in real-world environments, while learning wherever or whenever their busy schedules allow. By focusing on engagement, flexibility, and accessibility, we’ve been able to bring online technology education to over 40 million learners and counting.

After working mostly with individual learners, we discovered that Codecademy was not only helping people land a job in technology, but also was helping them succeed while on the job. More and more of our learners were bringing Codecademy into the workplace to support their teams, increase productivity, and take their careers to the next level. It became clear to us that Codecademy’s mission – which is to empower inspiring careers in technology – also applied to businesses and their workforces. By scaling technical learning in the workplace, we could help companies realize their full potential, while also supporting the individual career paths of their employees.

That brings us to today, with Codecademy officially joining the team at Skillsoft. Together, we want to create a world where every person and every team has the opportunity to learn the skills needed for success in the 21st century. And as we bring together the best of consumer learning with the best of enterprise learning, we’ve never been in a better position to do just that.

Through Skillsoft’s relationships with over 75% of the Fortune 1000, we can bring interactive technology education to some of the biggest companies around the world – allowing them to eliminate skill gaps, keep pace with technological innovation, and create a culture of continuous learning for their employees. The skills of today aren’t necessarily the skills of tomorrow, and in order to thrive in the digital transformation, companies need to invest in learning solutions that not only support their bottom lines, but also empower their team members to grow.

By combining Codecademy with Skillsoft, we can deliver more content, products, and learning experiences to our collective community of over 90 million learners and counting. Together, we will be able to expand our offerings across the Technology & Developer sector, as well as explore different modes of learning for a truly immersive and engaging experience. Whether someone is learning on their own or inside of a company, our goal is to become a truly end-to-end digital learning experience for every person working with technology – which I believe will be most people in the future.

At the end of the day, this milestone is about bringing two mission-driven companies together to make an impact on businesses and the lives of their employees. We believe that the world is a better place when education opportunities are accessible to all, and when every person and every team has the power to build something meaningful with technology. By joining the Skillsoft team, I’m thrilled that we get to build that world together.