Salesforce online training can now be traded for college credit

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is teaming up with cloud-based software company, Salesforce, to create a programme that offers college credit for coursework completed on the company’s Trailhead platform.

Users of Trailhead, the free course that provides Salesforce online training about coding in the platform, will be evaluated on the badges accumulated through the course. These can then be translated into credit when applying for a degree programme at SNHU. Each three-credit module will be considered as a major elective on a select number of information technology programmes, or as a free elective in other subjects.

The Salesforce online training is not just for prospective students, current SNHU students can also participate, earning extra credit and getting a handle on the Salesforce software.

It is open to all subjects as a basic understanding of coding is valuable experience to have in today’s job market.

“We think it’s useful for somebody in marketing and business and in general,” said SNHU President Paul LeBlanc

This goes across the board. Even English majors, LeBlanc believes “it makes them more marketable.”

“We’re excited about it. It’s free. We kind of have a relentless desire to drive down the cost of education to students so this partnership is one piece of that effort.”

Salesforce isn’t the only big tech firm partnering with universities and colleges to ensure students are picking up the skills the company looks for in staff.

Amazon recently joined with community colleges to offer certificates in their own cloud technology. While Facebook is also offering digital marketing training at community colleges.

Creating a ready talent pipeline is a recruiting strategy for tech employers, and it can help colleges keep their curriculum current for programmes that serve students into rapidly changing industries.

“This is a great example of a high-demand skill. It’s a demonstrable competency. Employers value it,” LeBlanc said. “Anybody who has it is going to have one more arrow in their quiver in terms of being competitive in the job market.”

Salesforce has had an encouraging Summer, reporting strong earnings after its US$15.3 billion acquisition of Tableau Software.

The company’s shares climbed about 7 percent in extended trading on Thursday after the software company reported US$4 billion quarterly revenue and raised its forecast for the year.

Revenue climbed 22 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Sales Cloud, the company’s biggest product, generated US$1.13 billion in revenue, up 13 percent, and Service Cloud, the second-largest division, grew 22 percent to US$1.1 billion.