By Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera
In response to a growing skills gap and accelerating population growth, the Republic of Kazakhstan partnered with Coursera in March 2023 to uplevel their higher education system. Through this partnership, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education set out to equip both students and faculty with digital and other essential skills and credentials to succeed in a digital economy. The Ministry has integrated over 650 courses from the world’s top universities and companies on Coursera for credit across 25 public universities in the Republic.
National implementation and swift adoption of various programs after the initial launch have been made possible through the close collaboration of the government, higher education systems, and strategic partners such as Bilim Media Group (BMG). Since the launch, 20,000 students and faculty have signed up and spent nearly 100,000 hours learning new skills online, amassing 40,000 enrollments and completing over 25,000 courses.
“In the context of globalization and digitalization, amid increasing competition in the global labor market, it is imperative to establish a flexible and open national education system that fosters continuous learning and enhances professional skills. The initiation of the Coursera Qazaqstan Project marks a significant milestone, as it involves the translation of courses taught by world-renowned professors into Kazakh. This initiative holds paramount importance for our nation’s future, our language, and the overall enhancement of education quality and accessibility,” said Sayasat Nurbek, Minister of Science and Higher Education, Republic of Kazakhstan.
The courses and credentials in the program, available in Kazakh, English, and Russian languages, focus on high-demand STEM and digital skills and career readiness for students seeking digital jobs. This includes over 30 entry-level Professional Certificates designed by industry leaders, including Google, IBM, SAP, and Meta, to prepare learners with no prior work experience for entry-level careers in fields such as cybersecurity, project management, UX design, and software development.
“Inspiring student motivation requires more than just course localization. It necessitates the provision of methodological support and the integration of these courses into the university curriculum,” said Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, CEO, BMG.
The most popular courses from the initiative include:
- Entrepreneurship 1: Developing the Opportunity, University of Pennsylvania
- Programming for Everyone (Getting Started with Python), University of Michigan
- Leading Teams: Developing as a Leader, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
- Communication in the 21st Century Workplace, University of California, Irvine
- Physics 101 – Forces and Kinematics, Rice University
The remarkable progress of this program follows an impactful initial partnership with the Republic of Kazakhstan Ministry of Labor and Social Protection and Coursera Workforce Recovery Initiative in 2020, a pandemic response initiative that provided governments no-cost access to Coursera to retrain displaced workers for in-demand jobs.
We’re excited to join forces with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in empowering university students with critical skills to flourish in the digital economy. The early success is a testament to the demand for these job-ready programs and serves as a powerful blueprint for how governments and higher education systems can collaborate to train the entire student population with in-demand skills using Coursera.
For more information about Coursera for Government, visit coursera.org/government.