Meta is launching 5 new professional certificate courses on Coursera to get a wider and more diverse talent pool into tech careers

• There are almost 1 million IT positions open right now in the US.
• Some jobseekers don't have the degree or experience to land roles like software developers.
• Meta is launching new certifications on Coursera to help these people get into the tech industry.

Right now, there's a talent shortage of 11.4 million workers in the country, and the shortage is predicted to reach 85.2 million workers by 2030 worldwide. Technology-related jobs make up a large chunk of this, with almost 1 million open IT positions right now, which companies are struggling to fill.

Meanwhile, some job seekers aren't equipped with the skills needed to land these jobs. In a June 2021 report by McKinsey and Company, 69% of workers said they need to improve their current skill set to advance their careers. Meanwhile, 60% without a college degree said they don't have the skills needed to get a high-paying job.

To solve this problem, Meta is launching five new entry-level professional certificates in July on Coursera, one of the world's largest online learning platforms. The courses will help people with no degree or tech experience get certified for entry-level software developer jobs by learning about components like front-end, back-end, Android, and iOS.

"The beautiful thing about these tech jobs is that nearly anyone can do them — anyone can learn how to be a social media marketer or data scientist or software engineer," Judy Toland, Meta's vice president of global customer marketing, told Insider. "You no longer have to go to school for four years to learn how to have a successful career in one of these fields."

Insider spoke to Toland, the CEO of Coursera, and a millennial worker who's already taken the course to learn what's so unique about these professional certificates and how they'll change recruitment in the tech industry.

No degree and no experience? No problem

According to Toland, these professional certificates are part of Meta's efforts to build a more inclusive and equitable job market.

"We're working to remove barriers so that anyone, regardless of education, background, or experience can land a high-growth, in-demand job and grow a rewarding career," she told Insider. "Our training programs can take anyone from zero skills to fully accredited in 3 to 9 months depending on the program you choose."

27-year-old Margarette Leandre, who grew up in Haiti and moved to Toronto, Canada for college, took Meta's social media marketing certification last year and said that it completely changed her career trajectory. After graduating in 2018, she started work as a program coordinator for a nonprofit but soon realized that she wanted to switch to a career managing social media. Going back to school wasn't an option for her because of the cost, and in February 2021, she came across Meta's Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate on Coursera.

"I kept seeing this course everywhere," she told Insider. "To me, it felt like a good investment because it was pretty affordable and I really liked the layout. The course lets you go at your own pace and even has assignments due, which really helped me learn."

The course helped Leandre land a job as a Social Media Campaign Manager at a marketing agency soon after. Even though she's now left that position, she said the certification did more than help her switch industries — it changed her way of thinking.

"The course made me realize that there are more accessible ways to be able to help to shift your career," she told Insider.

Meta's certificate course is part of a broader effort to restructure hiring in tech

Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera, said when his company heard Meta was thinking about offering online classes in 2020, they immediately reached out to pitch themselves as a partner. Fast forward two years and all the courses have been extremely successful so far, he said. In fact, Meta's social media marketing course launched in September 2020 had 110,000 enrollments to date.

Maggioncalda is particularly excited about the five courses launching in July, not just because of how it will fill gaps in the tech industry, but also about how it will impact the Gen Z workforce.

"We think this'll be a game-changer," he told Insider. "Gen Zers want more work flexibility and compensation than ever, so the tech industry is very appealing right now and this course could be a great way to get them in."

For Toland, the course is also part of a broader strategy to restructure hiring in tech. Even though some companies are now halting the brakes on hiring and conducting layoffs, there's still a lot of growth in the industry, she said. Employers like Tesla, Apple, and IBM are eliminating bachelor's degree requirements, which are opening up opportunities for the two-thirds of Americans without a college education to get better-paying jobs.

"We hope to set an example that will empower other employers to reimagine the recruiting process," she said.