Handshake launches free AI Skills Studio with project badges visible to over a million employers

On September 22, 2026, Handshake opened AI Skills Studio, a free project-based learning hub for any job seeker, with missions expected to take 10 to 45 minutes each. The company co-designed hands-on projects with Clay, Figma, Google, OpenAI, Replit, Salesforce and others. Completed projects are added to the user's Handshake profile and AI Showcase, and users receive a verified skill badge visible to more than one million employers that use Handshake. More than 40 missions are available at launch, sorted by career or topic, covering marketing, sales, data analysis, AI assistants, research, apps and sites, images and video, and design.

The platform connects AI skills training to hiring evidence, potentially changing how college students supplement AI learning and how employers assess entry-level AI ability, while intensifying competition with learning platforms such as Coursera and LinkedIn. Its impact depends on the actual quality of missions, employer adoption of badges, and whether partner tools cover real work scenarios; the original text provides no independent learning-outcome or hiring-result data. College students and graduating seniors can build a free, showable record of hands-on AI projects outside coursework and enter employer search results directly. Employers gain a skills-evidence channel beyond resumes, but whether badges become a reliable screening signal depends on actual recruiter adoption.