LinkedIn Learning is an online learning platform operated by LinkedIn Corporation, the world’s largest online professional network. LinkedIn Learning offers thousands of online courses in a huge range of subjects encompassing business, tech, and creative disciplines. Customers get access to the entire catalog for an affordable monthly subscription fee.
Learning or updating your skills in a variety of subjects
- Pros
- Massive catalog of subjects
- One monthly fee gets you access to everything
- Prepare for exams, update your professional skills, or just learn for fun
- Cons
- No one-on-one tutoring
- Auto-renewal at every month, so you need to remember to cancel if you’re not using it anymore
LinkedIn Learning provides online learning of a different kind. While many other learning platforms offer structured learning with a combination of online lessons and one-on-one tutoring, LinkedIn just opens up its massive library of thousands of courses and makes them available to all its subscribers. Your monthly subscription gets you the following features.
- Access to 13,000+ expert-led courses. You can watch as many courses as you want, there’s literally no limit.
- Personalized course recommendations based on your current job, skills, and what other professionals with a similar profile are learning.
- Watch course videos anytime on your computer or on your phone with compatible iOS and Android apps
- Earn a certificate when you complete a course and add it to your LinkedIn profile
- Practice with quizzes and downloadable exercise files
- Download videos to mobile app for mobile viewing – great for when you’re traveling for work
- Access LinkedIn’s Premium Career features, including InMail credits to reach out to recruiters and employers, ability to see who’s viewed your profile, salary and job information, and having your name displayed as a “featured applicant” when you apply for a job through LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has a massive library of courses. At time of writing, it numbered 13,000+ and counting, with dozens of new courses added each week. Most of the courses are in English, although there is a growing library of courses in Japanese, French, Spanish, and German. Courses consist of video tutorials, quizzes, and downloadable exercises.
Broadly speaking, the courses fit into the categories of business, technology, and creative. They are then offered as subjects, software, or learning paths (encompassing a wide range of subjects wrapped up like a degree). Some subjects are offered as short courses lasting a few hours or even as a series of videos that you can watch in any order you want. For example, there’s a short course called “Preparing for GMAT” that lasts six hours and gives you all the basics you need to prepare for the GMAT.
The following table gives examples of some of the main subjects, software, and learning paths on offer.
- -,,Subjects,,Software,,Learning Paths
- Business,,Career development, Customer Service, Finance and Accounting, Human Resources, Leadership and Management, Project Management, Small Business and Entrepreneurship,,Excel, Google Ads, Google Analytics, Office 365, Outlook, Project, Tableau, YouTube,,Become a Manager, Become a Digital Marketer, Become a Small Business Owner, Become an SEO Expert
- Technology,,Cloud Computing, Data Science, Database Managements, DevOps, IT Help Desk, Mobile Development, Software Development, Web Development,,Docker, GitHub, JavaScript, Linux, Python, SQL, Windows Server,,Become a Data Scientist, Become a Front-End Web Developer, Become a Full-Stack Web Developer, Become a Python Developer
- Creative,,Animation and Illustration, Audio and Music, Graphic Design, Motion Graphics and VFX, User Experience, Video, Web Design,,After Effects, CSS, HTML, Illustrator, InDesign, PhotoShop, Premiere Pro,,Become a Digital Illustrator, Become a Graphic Designer, Become a Motion Graphics Artist, Become a Photographer, Become a Video Editor
This service is all about self-guided and self-paced learning. There are no tutors and no schedules here. Your subscription gets you access to the entire LinkedIn Learning library. You decide when, where, and at what pace to start learning. There are upsides and downsides to this way of learning. The upside is flexibility. The downside is you need a great deal of self-motivation. With such a large library, it can be hard seeing out one course from start to end. But if you know what you’re looking for, you should be able to find it on LinkedIn Learning. And there’s a good chance you’ll get something positive out of the recorded videos from their expert instructors.
All LinkedIn Learning subscriptions start with a one-month free trial. There are no commitments when you sign up. Just register for LinkedIn, head to LinkedIn Learning and click “Start free trial” at the top of your screen. You’ll need to fill out your billing details, but you’re free to cancel at any stage without being billed for the next month. Once your free month is up, the price is $29.99 per month if you prefer monthly billing or a reduced $24.99 per month ($299.88 per year) if you prefer to be billed yearly.
LinkedIn Learning is owned and operated by LinkedIn Corporation and is the sister company of LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network. LinkedIn was founded in Mountain View, California in 2002. Today it has more than 590 million members worldwide and is one of the most visited websites on the planet. According to recent reports, LinkedIn Learning has 17 million users and is growing rapidly.
Because LinkedIn Learning consists entirely of pre-recorded videos and quizzes, it doesn’t really need to offer much in the way of customer support. If you have any issues or suggestions, you can fill out an online form on the LinkedIn Learning website to have a customer agent get back to you. LinkedIn Learning also invites managers to contact it about enterprise deals and discounts for companies.
Without exaggeration, LinkedIn Learning has one of the largest – if not the largest – online course libraries on the Internet. Being a professional network, the focus here is on skills that can help you in your career, namely business, tech, and creative skills. If you’re looking to update your professional skills, land a new job, study up for an important exam or certification, or just learn something new – you should be able to find what you’re looking for on LinkedIn Learning.