Within a few short weeks of the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, millions of Americans in sectors like hospitality, retail, and fitness lost their jobs.
Facing limited job prospects as the pandemic drags on, many people are likely retraining themselves right now, looking for ways to upskill, add new skills, or reskill, retrain themselves in a new area.
Indeed, digital upskilling has increased during the pandemic as millions of Americans look for in-demand jobs, Reuters reported.
The pandemic is accelerating the need for workers to upskill, a trend that has been growing for the last several years amid the rise of automation and AI.
In fact, by 2022, 54% of all employees will require significant upskilling, according to the World Economic Forum, which calls the phenomenon "the Fourth Industrial Revolution." One-quarter of American jobs are at a high risk of automation by 2030, The Brookings Institute reported.
It's a problem not only for workers, but for employers.
As JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon wrote in a 2019 statement, "The new world of work is about skills, not necessarily degrees. Unfortunately, too many people are stuck in low-skill jobs that have no future and too many businesses cannot find the skilled workers they need."
To help prepare Americans for the changing job landscape, and to fill roles in booming sectors, multiple companies have taken it upon themselves to launch programs to upskill and reskill Americans.
Here are seven firms that have invested large amounts of money in workforce development programs over the past two years.