MSU Denver offers free skills training for jobs in high-growth fields

The impact of the recent pandemic has far-reaching effects on businesses around the globe, forcing them to downsize and limit spending, and ultimately rendering much of its workforce unemployed.

Workers are left scrambling to upskill and reskill to become eligible for a narrower option of opportunities.

Additionally, face-to-face training is outpaced by online learning in the wake of social distancing regulations, making upskilling efforts that much more challenging.

Metropolitan State University (MSU) of Denver is introducing its new programme which includes a website that is specially tailored to the local job market to solve some of the pain points faced by job seekers.

The website, launched in September of this year singles out opportunities in growing fields, identifies the required skills — and then offers sessions by university faculty or with industry-supplied software to jobseekers for free.

MSU Denver’s Skills Lab programme was designed by the university’s Innovative and Lifelong Learning office to respond to the job loss and upheaval caused by the pandemic.

This free service will include self-paced training that is available online. Upon enrolling, job seekers can begin gaining new, marketable, and in-demand skills that will aid their career growth.

Associate vice president of the Innovative and Lifelong Learning office, Terry Bower said, “The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Colorado lost 208,000 jobs between February and July, which was a 7.4% drop,”

She added, “I pretty much knew I wanted to create some kind of skills offering for the community.”

The project was carried out by collecting state and federal employment data and gathering information form the chambers of commerce.

Through this exercise, the team at MSU Denver identified specific industries that will see high employment growth. These areas have been identified as e-commerce, cybersecurity and information technology, data science, and health and human services.

The team also launched a skills lab, named “essential office skills,” which helps job seekers learn more about software programmes regularly used in most workplaces.

So far, the university has received a total of 1,593 registrations for all the labs, with the essential office skills as the most popular, followed by data science, e-commerce, and then IT and cybersecurity.

Participants who successfully complete a lab will receive a digital badge identifying the areas in which they are deemed competent that can be added to their resumes and profiles.

MSU Denver’s Skills Lab e-commerce training could lead to positions such as product manager, logistics coordinator, marketing manager, and content developer while the data science training could open up opportunities in positions such as data analyst, data architect, data administrator, machine learning engineer, statistician, and data and analytics manager.

Additionally, the skills lab specialising in IT and cybersecurity training can prepare jobseekers for a role as a cybersecurity analyst, information technology specialist, help desk coordinator, product manager, logistics coordinator, marketing manager, and content developer.

Participants specialising in health and human services can land positions as counselors, caseworkers, social workers, public health administrators, or even community service managers.

The programe might expand offerings or offer deeper dives into certain areas. Those interested in registering can go to MSU Denver Skills Lab.