ASU, Salesforce's Trailhead Academy join forces to close the digital skills gap

Digital skills have long been in the spotlight at Arizona State University as the institution prepares its students for the future workforce, and ongoing efforts between ASU and industry leaders ensure that Sun Devils have access to state-of-the-art digital platforms.

One such established long-term partnership has been with Salesforce. As of today, ASU is a Salesforce Authorized Training Provider, enabling its students to sharpen their technical and creative skill sets even more.

Expanding on the existing AZNext Program, which creates a bold, innovative and sustainable workforce development ecosystem that addresses the need for more skilled workers in IT roles, ASU is now able to leverage Trailhead Academy’s workforce development infrastructure to source, train and place students in the Salesforce ecosystem at scale.

The rapid pace of digital transformation is fueling massive growth in cloud technology. According to a recent IDC study, the Salesforce economy will create 9.3 million new jobs by 2026.

“Organizations are transforming their businesses through digital platforms,” said Raghu Santanam, senior associate dean for executive education, corporate partnerships and lifelong learning and executive director of the Department of Labor-funded digital workforce initiative AZNext at ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business. “It’s important for the university to integrate platform-centric digital skills into its curriculum. AZNext is strengthening the technology workforce pipeline through collaborations with digital platform ecosystems partners.”

While the Salesforce economy grows, so does the demand for digital skills. By 2025, the need for digital skills is expected to rise by more than 50%, which means upskilling and reskilling will be required to succeed in the future of work. 

"We're excited to partner with Arizona State University to expand their workforce development program and unlock new sources of talent by driving Salesforce skills that lead students to career pathways in the Salesforce ecosystem," said Amy Regan Morehouse, senior vice president of Trailhead Academy go-to-market.

Salesforce's Trailhead Academy will help ASU build and validate these in demand digital skills with expert-led learning programs, role-based credentials and workforce development strategies designed to fuel net-new talent.

As a Salesforce Authorized Training Provider, ASU can now:

• Leverage Trailhead Academy resources and the certified instructor community to empower faculty.
• Lean on Salesforce for personalized guidance and tailored program management across workforce development initiatives.
• Deliver Salesforce training to students using up-to-date course materials, exercise guides and experiential projects that simulate real organizational configurations provided by Trailhead Academy.
• Certify and validate students’ expertise using discounted exam vouchers.

“We’re excited to partner with Salesforce to develop new program offerings that leverage the Salesforce ecosystem,” Santanam said. “The partnership will greatly enable AZNext to increase talent diversity in the technology sector and address the acute shortage of trained workforce in the Salesforce ecosystem.”