Business

Salesforce and OpenClassrooms announced a partnership to prepare individuals around the world for high-demand jobs in the technology sector. The companies are launching the first fully digital, online diploma course recognised by the French government and certified by Salesforce. Leveraging Trailhead, Salesforce’s online learning platform, the programme will train individuals for roles as Salesforce Certified Administrators and Salesforce Certified Platform Developers, with a goal of providing an entry route into the workforce for more than 1,000 people by 2021.

According to IDC, Salesforce and its ecosystem of partners and customers will generate 3.3 million new jobs worldwide by 2022 with $859 billion in new GDP impact worldwide. Salesforce and OpenClassrooms are coming together in response to the shortage of talent and skills in the technology sector.

By creating a pool of talented staff, vital for growing businesses, the joint initiative will provide individuals—from students entering the workforce for the first time to professionals looking to reskill for jobs in technology—with access to strategic technology roles at the heart of companies’ digital transformations.

The programme is based on Salesforce’s Trailhead platform and OpenClassrooms’ innovative training course, given online: students must develop a number of professional projects and acquire specific skills necessary to master the use of Salesforce. In addition, onsite meetings, hackathons, technical conferences and field projects will be offered to students. Registration opens in June 2019.

“We are living in a new economy that brings with it an incredible wave of innovation and business opportunity, and it’s imperative we train and recruit tomorrow’s talented people,” said Olivier Derrien, country manager of Salesforce in France. “By combining OpenClassrooms and Trailhead, we’re preparing thousands of individuals for new career opportunities, with training on top digital skills that are recognised by the French government. We are proud to launch this partnership in France to strengthen Salesforce’s involvement in the economic fabric of France and continue our plan to create 150,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2022.”

“Making education accessible and providing training for tomorrow’s skills is a shared mission of OpenClassrooms and Trailhead,” added Pierre Dubuc, co-founder of OpenClassrooms. “This programme, created jointly with Salesforce, is a perfect match with our ambition, as it is linked directly to a well-defined seam of potential employment, growing continuously. We are honoured to be trusted by a global technology leader such as Salesforce, convinced by our demanding education standards and the skills-based approach at the heart of our model. Above and beyond the training of the first 1,000 students in this programme lies our objective of supporting the exponential growth of Salesforce to further increase the impact of this training in terms of employment and professional integration.”