Neil here.

A couple of days ago, I told you all some pretty crazy news… that Jack Dorsey – Twitter’s CEO – is going to allow his employees to keep working from home forever, if they want to.

To me, this move indicates that work is changing in a big way… and it’s changing fast.

If we’re going to adapt to this new work-from-home setup, we’re all going to have to get very technology-literate very soon.

But I’m not talking “soon,” as in next year. I’m talking “soon,” as in right now.

I’m willing to bet that some of the world’s next huge companies will be the ones that step up to the challenge of educating employees and providing decentralized technologies to remote workforces.

For many, the idea of remote work is not a new one.

A study by MBO Partners indicated that roughly 43% of Americans already spend time working outside of the traditional office setting. Forbes estimated that 35% of American workers freelanced in 2019 and predicted that this number would continue to grow this year.

In other words, this paradigm shift has been in the works for a few years already. But it was a very gradual process… until now.

We’ve seen an unprecedented – and almost overnight – shift in the workplace landscape that has forced millions more Americans to essentially become “digital nomads”… the term used to describe people who can work pretty much anywhere they want.

Now, obviously, no one is traveling right now. But technology traditionally reserved for these types of workers has become mainstream these days… and this trend is not going away anytime soon.

As time goes on, many of us are going to have to develop some newly in-demand skill sets for remote work. Companies are looking for employees who can adapt to the realities of moving work online… I’m talking about skills like social media, marketing, sales, web design, and more.

And many people have a lot of learning to do to separate themselves from the increasingly crowded hiring landscape.

Because of this, I have my eye on the wide-open space of technology skills development – tech that helps you learn to use other tech. It’s part of a booming global education services market that’s only going to continue to grow. From 2020 to 2027, this market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 17.9%.

That’s a pretty big deal. And the big guys know this, too. Venture capitalists are pouring billions of dollars into the education market this quarter alone.

We’ve already seen companies like LinkedIn begin to offer online learning classes, skills assessments, and certificates to their users. There are also companies like MasterClass, Udemy, and edX – all of which are transforming education in ways that allow increasingly-distributed workforces to grow their skill sets right from home.

As technology continues to advance, I’m expecting even more companies to enter this space… and it’s going to happen quickly, as more employers work to implement effective training programs to equip their employees with the most in-demand skillsets.

This is going to have an enormous impact on the education industry’s traction, which is exactly why this is the space that I’ll be watching out for.

I’ll be back soon with another update. But until then, let me know what education companies and technologies are catching your eye.

Until next time,

Neil Patel