While we were worried about the virus outbreak, the world changed. It felt like businesses, work and personal lives transformed overnight and pushed us hard into the future. We are now in a fast-moving, digital and innovative online world.
For many people, this is exhilarating. New jobs and careers have been created. Entrepreneurs started companies at record rates. Lives are made easier with app-based food deliveries, online shopping, creative and mundane tasks taken care of and almost all our needs answered via technology platforms.
The downside is that those who don’t possess the right skills risk falling behind. This could lead to not being able to find a suitable job or being passed over for promotion. To remedy this matter, companies are offering upskilling and training to teach their employees new skills. They run the gamut, including software coding, cybersecurity, data analytics, gaining credentials and accreditation and taking a variety of self-improvement courses.
A leader in this space is Coursera, founded by Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng. Their vision was to offer “life-transforming learning experiences to learners around the world.” The educational company offers more than 4,000 courses to around 75 million people. About 100-plus Fortune 500 companies and 6,400 campuses, businesses and governments rely upon Coursera to access its catalog of world-class learning. The company offers a wide range of educational opportunities, such as “hands-on projects and courses to job-ready certificates, career credentials and degree programs.”
Here are some of the general Coursera statistics:
- There are 92 million registered learners (more than 5 million globally), 17.3 million learners in the U.S.
- Coursera has over 5,200 courses, 600-plus specializations, more than 2,100 projects, 70-plus certificates (15 entry-level) and 33 degrees.
- It has more than 175 university and 75-plus industry partners globally.
- More than 6,500 institutions across 130 countries have used Coursera to upskill and reskill employees, citizens and students.
- Some of its 2,900 companies consist of eBay, Reliance Industries (India), Zurich Insurance and Expedia.
- Some of its 230 government entities include Commonwealth of Learning, National Training Institute Barbados, New York State Department of Labor, Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the National Institute of Health.
- Some of its 3,600 campuses consist of Oklahoma State Regents (U.S.), Universidad de Guadalajara (Mexico), University of Jeddah (Saudi), KAUST (Saudi), LPU (Philippines) and Delhi Technical University (India).
In our newly remote world, you can learn anytime from anywhere. It’s a great equalizer. From the comfort of your own home, you can retrain yourself to become a tech professional. For women, Blacks or Hispanics, they have the resources to enhance their careers, pivot to new jobs or reinvent themselves to become part of the future digital wave. The coursework aids in helping level the playing field for marginalized groups.
Chief enterprise officer Leah Belsky is responsible for building programs to help Coursera’s business clients better train and upskill their employees to meet the needs of today’s evolving work landscape. Belsky states that business leaders are moving quickly to adapt to accelerating changes. This includes digital transformation and new hybrid and remote work models.
Smart leadership could use Coursera to provide the education and tools needed to upskill and retrain workers. In a tight job market with companies suffering from attrition and finding it hard to get people to replace those who quit, education offerings are a sound strategy to recruit and retain employees. If a worker feels that they’re valued, learning, growing and sees a future with the organization, they are more inclined to remain with the company. They’ll also appreciate the chance to advance and become more motivated and happier.
Due to the size and scope of the organization, Coursera has a great deal of data to share, relative to the results of millions of people taking its vast inventory of courses.
Coursera Hiring and Diversity Statistics
- Thirty-six percent of employees hired from April 2020 to October 2021 are fully remote (not near an office or expected to come in).
- More than two-thirds of U.S.-based hires in the first half of 2021 are remote.
- Forty percent of U.S.-based hires between January and July 2021 identified as Black/African American or Hispanic/Latinx.
The data shows that with remote work, there are more people availing themselves to the courses and using the knowledge, accreditation and degrees to pursue and land new jobs. In particular, the numbers show that people who identify as women, Black or Hispanic realized a significant increase in hiring.
Source: Forbes
