OpenSesame adds Chegg Skills courses to Plus service

OpenSesame has added Chegg Skills to its OpenSesame Plus subscription service, bringing more than 100 courses to the learning platform.

The new courses cover artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data science, data analytics, healthcare administration and workplace communication. A further 100 courses are due to be added later this year.

The expansion comes as employers face pressure to train staff for changing job requirements linked to the wider use of AI and other digital tools. OpenSesame cited research from Chegg Skills showing that 44% of employees said they felt confident using AI tools in their current role, highlighting what the companies described as a gap in workplace readiness.

Existing OpenSesame Plus subscribers will be able to access the Chegg Skills courses through their current subscription. The new material is intended to sit alongside OpenSesame's existing business, compliance and leadership training.

Skills focus

The addition is aimed at employers seeking a broader mix of technical and workplace training. Alongside subject areas such as AI and cybersecurity, the courses cover communication, critical thinking and learning agility.

Chegg Skills describes its approach as combining instruction with practice, feedback and assessment. OpenSesame said this structure would give corporate learning teams more options to build structured training pathways across related subjects.

The courses are designed to help learners move from introductory knowledge to practical application in the workplace. That reflects a wider shift in corporate training, as employers look for programmes that address immediate job tasks as well as longer-term development.

OpenSesame, founded in 2011 and based in Austin, works with course publishers and provides a catalogue spanning more than 70 languages. It says it serves thousands of organisations across industries.

Readiness gap

The announcement highlights a broader debate among employers over how far workers are prepared for roles that now require at least some familiarity with AI tools and data-led decision-making. While many companies have introduced AI services into daily work, staff confidence and practical use often lag behind the technology rollout.

Adding Chegg Skills will deepen the technical content available to customers and widen the scope of workforce development programmes already running on the platform, according to OpenSesame.

"Workforce readiness is about making sure employees have not just heard of the latest technology, but have new skills to tap into when the work demands it," said Spencer Thornton, Senior Vice President of Content & Curation at OpenSesame.

"Organisations need learning that takes people from understanding to application, particularly in fast-moving areas like AI, data and cybersecurity. Bringing Chegg Skills into OpenSesame Plus gives our customers more depth in those areas and more ways to prepare their people for what's next," Thornton added.

Chegg Skills also pointed to outcome data from its own impact report, which found that 80% of surveyed graduates reported career improvement and 67% said they had applied new skills immediately. Those figures relate to surveyed graduates rather than OpenSesame users specifically.

For Chegg, the arrangement extends the reach of its workforce learning business through a third-party corporate training platform. For OpenSesame, it adds course depth in fields that many employers now rank among their most urgent training needs.

"There's a big difference between knowing something and being able to do it. Employees need opportunities to practice, apply what they learn and demonstrate their skills," said Colin Coggins, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Chegg Skills.

"OpenSesame understands that challenge and has built an ecosystem that makes it easier for organizations to deliver the right learning to their people. Together, we're making technical and durable skills training more accessible to organizations looking to build lasting workforce capabilities," Coggins added.