It’s no surprise that the professional world has seen one of the greatest reshuffles in history.

Not only are people switching companies, they’re switching career paths.

As these changes have exacerbated over the past few years, the necessary skills and criteria for jobs have shifted as well – and LinkedIn is taking notice.

LinkedIn’s Learning community noted over 7.3 million users have taken their most popular courses so far in 2022 – almost doubled from 2021.

Let’s take a look at what users are curious about, and how you can access one of the top 20 courses for free.

The Most Popular Courses Aren’t Hard Skills

Believe it or not, the most popular courses focused on more objective categories, rather than technical skills.

Goal Setting: Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) reached the top of the list. This isn’t surprising as many companies and people had to shift their focus throughout the pandemic.

Other popular courses that focused on “soft” skills included:

• Communicating with Confidence
• Speaking Confidently and Effectively

Technical Skills Are Still Key

While some people picked up a new leisurely hobby the past few years, others dove into exploring different skill sets. These hard skill courses appeared on LinkedIn’s top 20 list for the first time in 2022, concluding that people are digging deeper into their professions.

• Learning the OWASP Top 10
• Power BI Essential Training

Other top hard skill courses on the list include:

• Excel Essential Training (Office 365/Microsoft 365)
• Learning Python
• SQL Essential Training

Why You Should Pay Attention

No matter what your professional goal is, LinkedIn Learning likely has a course for you.

You may not be searching for a new job right now. Maybe you feel stuck in your career path and unsure of what to do next.

Whether you’re looking to develop more personal growth, effective communication, or technical/hard skills, it’s important to take advantage of the opportunities to set yourself up for success.

While time may not be a concern to some, money may be a concern. That’s why LinkedIn is offering their top courses for free until August 31, 2022. Keep in mind that you are able to take one of these courses for free, not all of them. You can find the top 20 free courses here.

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