Facing Economic Challenges‭: ‬Open Source Opportunities are Strong During Times of Crisis

Our recently published Open Source Jobs Report examined the demand for open source talent and trends among open source professionals. What did we find?

Open Source Career Opportunities are Strong

The good news is that hiring is rebounding in the wake of the pandemic, as organizations look to continue their investments in digital transformation. This is evidenced by 50% of employers surveyed who stated they are increasing hires this year. There are significant challenges though, with 92% of managers having difficulty finding enough talent and struggling to hold onto existing talent in the face of fierce competition. Other key findings from this year’s report included:

• Cloud is on the rise. Cloud and container technology skills are most in-demand by hiring managers, surpassing Linux for the first time, with 46% of hiring managers seeking cloud talent.
• DevOps has become the standard method for developing software. Virtually all open source professionals (88%) report using DevOps practices in their work, a 50% increase from three years ago.
• Demand for certified talent is spiking. Managers are prioritizing hires of certified talent (88%).
• Training is increasingly helping close skills gaps. 92% of managers report increasing requests for training. Employers also report that they prioritize training investments to close skills gaps, with 58% using this tactic.
• Discrimination is a growing concern in the community. Open source professionals having been discriminated against or made to feel unwelcome in the community increased to 18% in 2021 — a 125% increase over the past three years.

Enabling Training and Certification

This year, ‬vendor-neutral training and certification grew in importance as demand for professionals with critical skills in open cloud technologies and DevOps increased‭.‬ Over 2 million individuals have enrolled in free Linux Foundation training courses, providing them a great way to explore different open source technologies and decide which is the best fit for them; this includes over a million students who have enrolled in our Introduction to Linux course on the edX platform. To date, over 50,000 individuals have been certified for their technical competence through Linux Foundation programs.

This year, our Training & Certification team launched over 20 new offerings. We now host over 70 eLearning courses, deliver over 20 instructor-led courses, and offer more than a dozen certification exams that enable certified professionals to demonstrate their skills, with more being released regularly. 

This year saw the addition of exam simulators to our Kubernetes certification exams, enabling exam registrants to familiarize themselves with the exam environment before sitting for their exam. In late 2021, we will launch a new Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate certification exam, which will serve as an entry-level certification for new cloud professionals.

In 2021, The Linux Foundation directly awarded 500 scholarships for free training and certification to individuals worldwide. Hundreds more were awarded via partnerships with nonprofits, including Blacks in Technology, TransTech Social Enterprises, and Women Who Code.

New training and certification offerings launched in 2021 include:

• Building a RISC-V CPU Core
• Certified Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA)
• Certified TARS Application Developer (CTAD)
• FinOps for Engineering
• Generating a Software Bill of Materials
• GitOps: Continuous Delivery on Kubernetes with Flux
• Hyperledger Besu Essentials:
• Creating a Private Blockchain Network
• Kubernetes and Cloud Native Essentials
• Kubernetes Security Essentials
• Kubernetes Security Fundamentals
• Implementing DevSecOps
• Introduction to Cloud Foundry
• Introduction to FDC3 Standard
• Introduction to GitOps
• Introduction to Kubernetes on Edge with K3s
• Introduction to Magma:
• Cloud Native Wireless Networking
• Introduction to Node.js
• Introduction to RISC-V
• Introduction to WebAssembly
• Open Source Management and Strategy
• RISC-V Toolchain and Compiler Optimization
• Techniques
• WebAssembly Actors: From Cloud to Edge

Explore the full catalog of courses at training.linuxfoundation.org/full-catalog.