LinkedIn steps into the education domain with its new venture LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn, the site which is known for providing networking to professionals, has recently stepped into the educational sector with its newly launched portal LinkedIn learning. The professional domain which is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft for a mammoth sum of US $26.2 million, has crafted a new e-learning platform which will cater to the needs of individuals seeking assistance in their academics.

Apart from helping the individuals, it will also assist the educational institutions exploring e-learning courses. The inauguration of the new site took place at LinkedIn’s office in San Francisco, and it comes about a year and a half after LinkedIn acquired online learning site Lynda.com for US$1.5 billion. A large part of LinkedIn Learning is based on Lynda content, and goes live with some 9,000 courses on offer.

The new launched vertical will be teaching subjects such as business, technology and creative topics, with courses running the gamut from programming skills to writing and accounting. Courses can be both selected by employees as well as recommended by employers and their HR managers who can use LinkedIn’s analytics products to both monitor employees progress but also look at the wider range of what is being studied as a point of reference, and curators at LinkedIn itself.

While revealing the details of the vertical, the company stated that LinkedIn education is available for LinkedIn Premium subscribers who look like they will get 25 new courses every week based on information on the site. it will soon be releasing an enterprise tier so that large companies can take subscriptions for their entire employee base.