LinkedIn Reports 3x Increase in LinkedIn Learning Usage Amid COVID-19 Lockdowns

With no social events taking up people's time, most of us are looking for remote entertainment options. And one way that an increasing number of people are looking to utilize their free capacity is via professional development, and learning new skills that can help to advance their skills and career prospects.

Underlining this, LinkedIn has reported that it's seeing a big increase in demand for its LinkedIn Learning professional development courses.

As per LinkedIn:

"As our social and professional norms shift, people are turning to learning to help them get through. In the first week of April, people watched 1.7M hours of learning content on LinkedIn Learning vs. 560K hours in the first week of January - a 3X increase in time spent learning."

That's not overly surprising - not only are more people at home, with time free in the evenings, but many have also found themselves out of work, at least for the time being, which has no doubt been a significant impetus in this usage uptick.

In terms of what people are looking to learn about, specifically, LinkedIn says that courses related to working from home have, unsurprisingly, been on the rise, while lessons related to developing soft skills have also been popular. More recently, courses on mindfulness and stress management have also surged, as has interest in courses on resilience.

Worth noting, too, that LinkedIn has made many of these courses available for free amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, which has no doubt contributed to this increased take-up.

In addition to this, LinkedIn says that membership in Learning Groups on the platform were up 130% in March (over February), with users discussing key learning course lessons and advice to help advance their processes.

LinkedIn Learning courses can be a little hit and miss, but for the most part, they are well-structured and provide good insight into their respective focus areas. Add these courses and insights to LinkedIn's broader professional data set, and it may well be worth checking out what sessions might interest you, and whether they're available for free at this time.

And if you're not sure which courses are of most relevance, LinkedIn does actually highlight 'Trending' courses, as well as personalized recommendations based on your profile.