LinkedIn wants to close the skills gap for workers with new learning portal

LinkedIn, the professional network acquired by Microsoft in June, is showing ambitions to become far more than just a social network for professionals.

On Thursday, the company unveiled a broad overhaul of its flagship services - its desktop site, messaging, publishing and communication tools - and launched LinkedIn Learning, a skills development portal built in tandem with Lynda, an e-learning company that LinkedIn acquired for $1.5 billion in April 2015.

The LinkedIn Learning portal, which…