Salesforce Trailhead is democratising skills for the workforce of the future

As IT moves in the direction of increased automation, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and cloud adoption, it's clear that the IT jobs landscape will see an enormous change by 2020. In 2016, the Future of Jobs report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) stated that up to 7.1 million jobs could be lost in 15 developed and emerging economies due to redundancy, automation or disintermediation.

On the other hand, this explosion of technology is creating a massive demand for new skills. By 2020, one-third of in-demand skills will be new, and as the cost of traditional education continues to rise, there is a need for an educational platform that is accessible to everyone. That’s where Salesforce’s Trailhead comes in. Trailhead is a free, gamified, online-platform that empowers everyone to learn in-demand skills, earn résumé -worthy credentials, get mentorship opportunities and land a job that will thrive in the future of work.

The trail has moved to India

New technologies are evolving more rapidly than before and creating new jobs globally. It’s a challenge for schools to keep up with the pace of innovation. The Trailhead programme was initiated in 2014 to empower everyone to learn the skills they need to land a job in the workforce of today and tomorrow. Since its launch, APAC alone has seen over 3 million badges earned by over 200,000 learners (a growth of 62 percent just last year) on Trailhead.

Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco, California with presence in 51 locations. In India, they have a large team of over 1,000 people across Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), Salesforce and its ecosystem of partners and customers will create 3.3 million jobs globally. In India, Salesforce will create 1.1 million (direct and indirect) jobs contributing $17.2 billion to the Indian economy. Today, the organisation is working with industry and academia through the Trailhead initiative to prepare students in India for the ever-evolving business world. They have announced a partnership with ICT Academy, a Government of India initiative. This partnership will deliver new skills and learning for over 200 institutes, reaching more than 100,000 students in a year. “Our goal is to prepare the next generation of Trailblazers with in-demand job skills, thereby contributing to the Salesforce economy in India,” says Sunil Jose, SVP and Country Leader, Salesforce India.

A valuable online learning experience

Today, companies need to have a culture of learning to succeed and maintain a competitive edge. Unfortunately, a majority of companies lack this culture. On March 5, 2019, Salesforce announced the launch of myTrailhead to empower organisations to create a continuous learning culture to upskill their employees.

myTrailhead is an online learning experience platform that enables organisations to reinvent learning and enablement at their company - with their brand and content. myTrailhead transforms the corporate learning model and provides organisations with tools needed to make learning bite-sized, customised, gamified and at the center of their business.

Salesforce is also taking the power of Trailhead, with its guided, hands-on learning paths into the classroom with Trailhead for Students. Working together with universities, community colleges, workforce development programs and educational non-profits, Trailhead for Students provides everything educators need to get students ready for the Salesforce economy.

How to become a Trailblazer

Becoming a Trailblazer is a process that takes both time and dedication. It can’t be completed overnight, and it isn't one that should be rushed through quickly just to get badges or finish trails. Trailhead is a series of online tutorials that coach beginner and intermediate developers who need to learn how to code for the Salesforce platform. Trailhead education comes in three levels: trails, modules and units. The learning programme is designed to help users by providing a series of interactive assessments to identify whether learners have learned the content. Gamification is built into the Trailhead program, so developers can also earn badges for milestones reached in their Trailhead education.

Know more about the programme

You don’t necessarily have to be a part of an organisation to join Trailhead. Anyone - admins, developers, architects, business users, marketers, sales managers, and more - can create their own personalised learning path. In addition to providing in-demand technical skills, you’ll find soft skills content — everything from equality to culture, storytelling to coaching, and hiring to career exploration.

Gaurav Kheterpal, CTO, MTX Group (Silver Consulting Partner with Salesforce) is a 4x Salesforce MVP, Certified Technical Instructor, and Jaipur Dev Group Leader. A proud Trailblazer, Gaurav says, "From a technology perspective, Trailhead helps people ramp up quickly on several products and frameworks. However, I think the biggest win is the cyclic process of learning and giving back to the Salesforce community - becoming a member of this global tribe. This sense of belonging is something I never would have expected from a technology company - that's what sets Salesforce and Trailhead apart. There will be times when you will want to give up, there will be days when nothing seems right - it's all a passing phase. Focus on your own journey, make sure you understand everything you do and why you are doing it."

Read more on how Salesforce Trailhead helped him become a professional technical instructor and run the third largest Developer User Group in India.

Helping you stand out in the workforce

There’s no dearth of training modules to skill people for the workforce today, but Trailhead offers a diverse set of features that help you track your learning, create custom URLs, curate learning maps and so on. Here’s why Trailhead is unique from other learning programmes:

• Self-paced learning – You can learn what you need when you need it, by choosing the appropriate trail.

• Learning paths – Content is arranged in a hierarchy, with three levels: trails, modules, and units, and presented in a specific sequence, so you don’t have to spend time deciding what to read and in what order.

• Modular and engaging content – Each tutorial consists of short units, which can be read in 10-15 minutes each. The content is designed to be simple, self-contained, and directly useful, to maximise the value of the learning experience.

• Interactive assessments – At the end of each unit, you can take a challenge to verify what you learned, through multiple-choice questions or performing specific tasks. You get instant feedback after every challenge.

• Gamification –Points and badges are awarded on successful completion of units and modules, respectively. These are displayed on your user profile, so you can get recognition for your expertise.

“We are delighted to be associated with Salesforce. Career readiness and employability skills are becoming an integral part of education. To truly achieve ‘Make in India’, we need to adopt a framework that supports the holistic development of the youth and makes the country the world capital of skilled workforce. We believe a global leader like Salesforce can help students enhance their skills and equip them to pursue their career in this era of digitalisation,” says M Sivakumar, Chief Executive Officer, ICT Academy.

The trail ahead for Salesforce

India is a very important market for Salesforce as they envision a tremendous amount of growth opportunity here. “India is home to some of the best technology talent in the world and is known for its incredible innovation. It has even recently surpassed the U.S. in the largest amount of Internet users. It’s this type of growth, speed and innovation that made us want to double down and make India a key focus for us as a company,” says, Sunil Jose, SVP and Country Leader, Salesforce India.

They plan to continue driving customer-centric digital transformation and accelerate their focus on innovation across industries to create an ecosystem of Trailblazers. This year, they have launched the financial services (FSI) vertical for Salesforce in India reimagining the power of technology delivering unmatched experiences to consumers while supercharging productivity across the industry. They also plan to reach out to tier 2 cities and focus on small and medium businesses. Their customised solution for the SMB segment will empower every small business to get started and tap into the power of Salesforce with apps for sales and service that are easy to use, setup and maintain. Most importantly, they want to continue to build a close-knit ecosystem of employees, customers, partners and communities.

From admin to a developer to CEO, anybody can be a Trailblazer. So, if you’re looking to deliver an awesome customer experience, accelerate productivity or improve your business acumen, register and become a Trailblazer today!