Two years of OpenAI Academy
OpenAI is marking two years of the OpenAI Academy by expanding its educational footprint with a new community trainer program. Since its launch in September 2024, the Academy has reached more than 4 million people through events, self-paced courses, and practical guides. The initiative aims to help educators, small business owners, developers, and other groups build practical AI skills.
The Core Development
To ensure the benefits of AI are broadly shared, people need the skills and confidence to use it in their everyday lives. Since launching in September 2024, OpenAI Academy has helped people build those skills through practical training for tasks ranging from teaching and running a small business to developing software.
Over the past two years, OpenAI Academy has hosted more than 250 events , and more than 4 million people have engaged with Academy content . That work has brought together educators, small business owners, developers, nonprofit leaders and community members to learn, practice, and share what works.
For this next chapter, we’re expanding OpenAI Academy through a new trainer program that prepares people and organizations to teach Academy material in their communities. This program builds on our work with partners and will make training and ongoing support available closer to where people live and work.
Deployment & Availability
Across hundreds of events, we’ve found that the most valuable part of our training is giving people dedicated time and space to try AI tools on work that matters to them, learn from their peers, and get coaching and support from OpenAI mentors. We’re building on our work with partners to bring this approach to more communities around the country.
Strategic Perspective & Ecosystem Impact
We launched the Academy to expand access to AI training, technical guidance, and community, initially focusing on developers and mission-driven organizations working on local problems. Since then, the Academy has grown to include self-paced courses, practical guides, in-person workshops, and large multi-site events known as AI Skills Jams.
This month, we also introduced new Academy learning paths for knowledge workers, developers, leaders, educators, and college students. Learners can take courses relevant to their roles and earn Academy course badges by passing assessments.
These programs focus on helping participants use AI to solve problems they face day-to-day. An educator might use ChatGPT to adapt a lesson. A small business owner might build a repeatable process for customer research. A developer might use Codex to plan and implement a change while retaining control over review.
Why it matters
Broadening AI education through community trainers and structured learning paths helps ensure that diverse populations gain practical skills for everyday use. This decentralized approach addresses the growing need for accessible AI literacy across various industries.