How Upskilling Certification Can Become the New Standard

 

Kseniya Mikheeva was leading online development courses before it was cool. Now that the pandemic has thrust the rest of the world into this mass beta-test of remote learning and working, her digital marketing platform is surging. In this episode, Kseniya talks about the positives of upskilling through SEMRush Academy and how certification can become a new standard in assessment for all sorts of learning.

Ksenia is responsible for the strategy and development of the SEMrush Academy. She leads the development of the Learning Management System (LMS), marketing of the Academy products, and the creation of educational content. She’s been working in IT for four years. Before SEMrush, Ksenia worked for nine years as Development Director (PR, Marketing) in Real Estate and Consulting.

Research from the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute predicts that over 40% of jobs lost due to the COVID crisis will become permanent, and countless workers will find themselves needing to upskill to re-enter the workforce.

SEMrush is a software as a service (SaaS) company based out of Boston. While their core business is around digital marketing platforms, they also have a strong learning component called SEMrush Academy that offers online courses and certificates in digital marketing for free. More than 300,000 students have gone through the program. They offer video-based courses taught by top-notch marketing experts like Greg Gifford, Eric Enge, and Navah Hopkins.

As business moves increasingly online — and the pandemic accelerates this process — experts in the field of digital marketing, advertising, and content management will become more and more in demand. SEMrush aims to provide folks who are already in marketing (±60% of participants) or those who want to break into the field (±40% of students) with the skill set they need to excel. About 25% of the students are from North America, 18% from India, 10% from the UK, 5% from Australia, and 42% are from other countries (less than 2% per each other country).

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