Social media management platform Hootsuite has launched Podium, a free online education platform to help people develop modern skills for leveraging social media for business.

Podium also offers an industry-leading certification in social media marketing, giving users the opportunity to showcase credible, sought-after skills to employers and clients.

“The role of social media in driving business has seen a huge shift in the past few years, and with that shift we’re seeing a growing skills gap. Across the board, workers not only need to develop these newly required digital skills, but also need to prove and showcase their expertise in a competitive marketplace,” said Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite.

Demand for social media education has grown rapidly and Podium is the only online social media education program offering all of its education content for free. In fact, jobs that require social media skills have increased 89 percent, making social media one of the top ten fastest growing job trends, according to job site Indeed. Indeed’s chief economist, Tara Sinclair emphasised that training in these cutting edge skills is needed to succeed in today’s labor market.

“The video modules in Podium are very easy to follow. They’re broken up into bite-sized chunks of information that walk you through the entire social media marketing process. This training is valuable for anyone looking to manage their social media profiles in an effective manner,” said Koka Sexton, content marketing and social media team, corporate communications at LinkedIn.