RMIT Online launches CRM Professional with Salesforce course

RMIT Online has again expanded its course offering through a partnership with an industry player, launching CRM Professional with Salesforce as part of its Future Skills portfolio.

As well as earning a course credential, graduates will be given the option to complete the Salesforce Administrator Exam. The end goal, according to RMIT Online and Salesforce, is to upskill professionals in customer relationship management (CRM) so they can take on jobs with Salesforce and “its ecosystem of partners and customers”.

Helen Souness, CEO of RMIT Online, said the university is “thrilled” to work with Salesforce.

“The reality is that Australia’s technology skills gap is widening and we need to take immediate action if we wish to remain competitive globally in a world that is dominated by digitisation – or we risk falling behind,” she said.

The course, which will run for six weeks and cost $2,200, comes as a whitepaper from IDC, sponsored by Salesforce, predicted that new jobs in the “Salesforce ecosystem” will reach 79,000 in Australia by 2022.

This can be attributed more broadly to the rise of the cloud, which IDC stated drives growth “primarily by permitting an increase in IT innovation, which in turn supports business innovation that leads to accelerated development schedules, faster project completion, shorter time to market for new products, and lower operational costs”.

Organisations spending on cloud computing then also spend on related products and services such as Salesforce, IDC added.

Mark Innes, general manager and executive vice president, Salesforce APAC, said the company looks forward to working with organisations like RMIT Online to help meet the demand for upskilling of workers across Australia.

“We’re excited about the careers that students who earn a Salesforce Administrator Credential can have in Australia’s rapidly growing technology industry. Students can now gain in-demand Salesforce skills and the ability to work at exciting companies in Australia and the world,” he said.

Focusing on skills that required for students to become job-ready CRM professionals specialising in Salesforce, the course will incorporate Trailhead, Salesforce’s own gamified online learning platform and take students through things including app customisation, Salesforce features available to end users, and the practical application of Salesforce Administrator skills and concepts to data validation and debugging.

Salesforce is the latest industry partner to work with RMIT Online to produce a course.

RMIT Online last October announced a partnership with Silicon Valley-based education provider Udacity to launch a series of online courses focused on bridging the tech skills gap.

With support from companies including GitHub, Culture Amp, and Holden, four new courses were launched: Introduction to Self-Driving Cars, AI Programming with Python, Robotics Software Engineering, and Front-End Web Developer.

It also runs a series of courses on blockchain, digital transformation, and coding courses taught through Apple’s App Development with Swift curriculum.

According to RMIT Online, the university had more than 18,000 students across all its online offerings in 2018, including short courses and accredited online degrees and masters. Among the most popular courses were the series of blockchain courses and the iOS app development course.

Image: Helen Souness. Source: Supplied.