Generative AI or GenAI has gone from being buzzwords to a mainstay in most people’s work and life. However, not everyone knows how to leverage Gen AI fully. As a matter of fact, it wouldn’t be too farfetched to say that only a handful of people using Gen AI know how to fully utilize it. It’s with this backdrop and the increasing dissenting voice against leveraging Gen AI technologies that Coursera saw fit to launch Gen AI Academy to better inform and educate people to leverage the possibilities that open up with Gen AI.
Coursera’s Gen AI Academy offers courses that cover the basics and more advanced knowledge sets. This has been differentiated into GenAI Academy for Everyone and GenAI Academy for Executives. The former allows you to get the basics, the core principles of Generative AI, its applications and the impact it can have. It will teach you how to leverage Gen AI better for productivity and innovation. On the other hand, Gen AI Academy for Executives builds on the basics and allows team leaders and managers to understand the subject matter better, allowing them to navigate and lead teams around complex matters such as ethics and strategic applications of Gen AI in achieving their team goals.
You know that saying, “Those who can’t do, teach”? That doesn’t apply to Coursera. The company has been developing features and tools for both learners and teachers that leverage this emerging tech. These new experiences, not only make learning more accessible, it also simplifies and optimises workflows.
Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera, demonstrating the Course Builder tool during a presentation at the GenAI Academy launch in Malaysia
Coursera’s Course Builder leverages Generative AI to help develop customized courses. The tool helps author and customise courses based on prompts from the user. These prompts can be used to develop everything from course structure, course descriptions, readings, assignments and even glossaries. It will even help authors leverage the modules that are already available from Coursera’s participating world-class industry and academic partners.
Together with this, Coursera is also introducing Coursera Coach in beta. This tool will be available to Coursera for Business, Coursera for Government and Coursera Plus users. It leverages Gen AI to assist in learning. It will be able to provide personalized feedback, answer questions and provide lecture summaries and resources to help users learn. It can even communicate in the local language. Coursera has also made learning more accessible by translating more than 4,400 courses in Simplified Chinese.
Coursera’s GenAI Academy isn’t just launching now. It launched earlier in the year but is now being made available to Malaysia with some localisations and translations to make the courses more accessible. The courses offered in Gen AI Academy are developed in collaboration with industry leaders like AWS, Microsoft, IBM and Google as well as leading education institutions. This lineup with Coursera’s lofty goals to help Malaysia address the emerging need for Generative AI adeptness in the workforce. Upskilling and training to leverage emerging technologies will be crucial for the growth of Malaysia’s Digital Economy.
In an era marked by swift technological progress which is often seen as disruptors to jobs, it’s time to shift our perspective. As the job landscape undergoes transformation, many individuals find themselves standing at a crossroads in the evolving workforce. Instead of fearing obsolescence, people are embracing the new era of technology-enabled learning and reskilling. In Malaysia, 96% of employers are either currently using or planning to use GenAI technology in 2024. This means that employees will now need to further build their skills to keep up with evolving job descriptions. Fortunately, a wide array of online courses, skilling content, AI-guided career counselling, and virtual reality simulations are readily available to assist employees in advancing or pivoting their career paths.
Welcome to the era where technology is spearheading a reskilling and upskilling revolution that transforms careers. To access this, you don’t have to go to a university and attend classes in person – today, there are a variety of options, from online courses to complimentary upskilling apps available to anyone seeking it.
Unlocking the potential of upskilling and reskilling in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and is home to the third-largest labour force which is predominantly young. In Malaysia, the labour force makes up 16.97 million persons, indicating that there is an enormous potential for skilled labour. Yet, job participation, skill development and productivity levels are still lagging behind. Over the past decade, labour force participation in some Southeast Asian countries has gradually increased, while others have seen their rates fall significantly. What’s more, high rates of informal employment and a lack of support for older workers has slowed the region’s shift to a knowledge-based economy.
Research by PwC indicates that upskilling and reskilling, with a focus on digital-first capabilities, can potentially boost Southeast Asia’s GDP by 4% by 2030, creating nearly 680,000 new jobs. Importantly, it helps to create an agile and resilient workforce in the face of economic uncertainty and geopolitical strife.
Technology as a learning tool
In light of these circumstances, we urgently need to rethink our approach to upskilling. Lifelong learning programs, utilising technology to deliver online content, offer greater benefits to adults and older professionals seeking fresh challenges beyond the limited courses offered by traditional education institutions. In markets like Malaysia, digital skills are the top focus for employees, with most still prioritising basic digital skills (83.1%).
Technology empowers learners, giving them control and personalisation. This allows them to set their own pace since lectures and materials are pre-recorded, or they can participate in virtual lessons via online platforms such as Jobstreet’s Career Hub powered by seekMax, eliminating the need for in-person attendance. Through online platform learning such as this, the learner will be able to focus on gaining the skills they want to prioritise to be more suited for their next job.
In comparison to full-time universities that emphasise rigorous academics, upskilling and lifelong learning institutions provide easily digestible, bite-sized content for rapid knowledge acquisition. Furthermore, these modern educational models are designed to accommodate busy schedules and shorter attention spans, placing a strong emphasis on accessibility and convenience.
What’s particularly significant is that these accessible platforms empower learners to develop both hard and soft skills. For instance, individuals in today’s workforce can equip themselves with essential skills such as salary negotiation and leadership.
Enhancing the upskilling experience
Once considered staid, lifelong learning platforms are continuously innovating to improve the social aspects of their programs. To do this, many programs promote learning through collaboration and communication. Talent embarking on a lifelong learning journey can engage in group learning activities to interact with course material, forums, quizzes, masterclasses, or online discussions.
With the rise of online communities, it’s easier than ever for a working professional to gain relevant and practical insights from like-minded peers or industry experts who can help them navigate their careers by providing tailored advice.
This is exactly the sort of positive learning environment we’re creating with Jobstreet’s Career Hub powered by seekMAX, SEEK’s free innovative in-app learning and community platform that’s designed for on-the-go learners – with access to a wealth of content as well as industry experts. Since launch, nearly 1 in 3 monthly active users of the Jobstreet platform have already started using seekMAX as a tool to learn new skills and share insights amongst the community.
As the world’s workforce continues to evolve – lifelong learning platforms are crucial to personal growth and professional success. Lean into the opportunities they offer to stay relevant and competitive. The public and private sectors must also encourage this mindset in order to build a future-proof workforce.
We’ve heard the same song for years on end: “The market is changing, and digital skills are needed to address the gaps and jobs that will emerge in the near future.” However, the song hasn’t changed nor has the landscape – until very recently thanks to the global pandemic. The pandemic has accelerated not only medical technology but also transformed our work-life relationship and the landscape of corporate life entirely. We’ve seen the acceleration of remote and hybrid work in its wake and the increasing demand for remote and continuous learning. In fact, Coursera CEO, Jeff Maggioncalda says that the “future is characterized by uncertainty and dynamism” and this is exactly what we’re seeing in a world where automation is replacing a lot of the jobs that we’ve been accustomed to over the past decades. The big question now is: Where does that leave us now?
An Emerging Need to Rethink Education and Enable Universally Accessible Education
In the simplest terms, we’re at a crossroads; one that will see the emergence of new norms, new methods and approaches, and a new need for universally accessible education that addresses the needs of emerging jobs in a new market. However, that doesn’t mean that we forget the knowledge and know-how from the past, it just means that we’ve got to adapt and look at it from a different perspective.
It’s been historically proven that quality education has driven cultural and civilizational prosperity. However, in recent years, we’ve been seeing an increase in the number of companies looking for “soft skills” rather than a “paper qualifications”. In this light, it has become more apparent that our current approach to academia, training and education is quickly failing to provide the skills and industrial know-how to address the needs of various industries. It necessitates a rethinking and a realignment of strategies in addressing the rapidly growing needs of a world that is continually and swiftly changing.
Realizing this, the founders behind Coursera, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, developed a platform that has grown rapidly into the go-to place for industry-relevant courses. What initially started as a platform for upskilling and training in computer sciences has become a universally accessible platform to learn and develop new skills. In the years since its founding in 2015, Coursera has collaborated with industry leaders like Google and Meta as well as reputable academic institutions like the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop accessible, industry-relevant courses and qualifications which are rapidly changing lives for the better.
MOOC-ing the Future with Stackable Courses
Massively Open Online Courses (MOOC) have become the cornerstone of Coursera’s vision of accessible education. What started as small, bite-sized, short courses have become weeks’ long certifiable courses. However, Coursera has taken it a step further by creating an environment where these MOOCs are stackable. Simply put – take a number of these courses over the span of two to three years and earn yourself a diploma or degree from a reputable institution. With this approach, the concerns of upskilling a workforce or population become an issue that is continually addressed by the evolving courses available.
Adoption of this form of learning and learning online has been driven by a generation that has realised and been sensitized to a growing gap between philosophically driven academia and skills-driven industry. This is supported by their own statistics which show a larger portion of learners from younger populations across the world. The average age of learners on the platform is about 30 years of age.
The advent of online learning has not only led to a more accessible advent of online learning has not only led to a more accessible form of tertiary learning, but it’s also disproportionately empowered women to pursue degrees in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) related fields. In Malaysia alone, women account for 46% of Coursera’s 58,000 learners. This and the added flexibility of planning your education around your life empowers even the most burdened individuals like single mothers to upskill themselves to better their financial outlook.
Coursera isn’t just making it more accessible; it’s helping institutes of higher learning rethink qualifications for their courses. This falls in line with many companies adopting skills-based qualifications instead of more theoretical qualifications. MOOCs on Coursera are used to not only give learners a taste or trial of the course they’re getting into, but they are also increasingly used to ascertain the aptitude of learners for courses. Scoring well in certain MOOCs can open new pathways of learning to those who have otherwise been turned down by academia. With this approach, learners are not only qualifying for their degree or course, but they also earn the required credits and prerequisites to their degree or master’s.
Dealing with Stigma & Accreditation
When online degrees and masters were first introduced by institutions in response to platforms like Coursera, there was a stigma that arose together with it. Are online degrees and masters up to scratch? Are these degrees bought? While they may be less prevalent now, there are some who haven’t embraced the change just yet.
Source: Coursera
However, an increasing number of well-known universities are beginning to embrace hybrid learning. In fact, some of these universities offer their courses on Coursera itself. They’ve created learning experiences that empower online learners with the same access and facilities as on-campus students. Library access, access to resources like journals and even access to teaching staff are now part and parcel of the learning experience even for online learners. Study groups and student participation via tools like zoom or online forums are being factored into the final grade of online learners.
That said, these degrees and master’s programs are still subject to stringent standards of boards like the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) or the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) in the U.S.. With regular universities, courses are put through the accreditation process every two to three years, while this used to work before, with the ever-changing digital industry landscape and the skills-based hiring practices becoming prevalent it leaves the institutions handicapped and ill-equipped to address the needs of industries they train for.
With MOOCs and hybrid learning becoming more mainstream, Coursera has been working with relevant partners and agencies to rethink and better adapt the accreditation processes to allow both conventional and online learners to benefit. As the process is optimized, academia will be better equipped to respond to the changing job landscape. Online learning and MOOCs are accelerating the rate at which the workforce is being equipped with skills needed for new, digital skills-based jobs. With conventional learning institutions joining the fray, the skills gap will be all but moot.
Adapted for & Developed with Industry
However, it’s worth pointing out that it’s a continual process of developing and adapting learning modules to address new, novel concepts and approaches. This is something that is being continually done when it comes to MOOCs. Institutions that provide these MOOCs and platforms like Coursera regularly improve and innovate based on learner feedback and development of courses with leading players like Meta, Google, CISCO and more.
These mechanisms of improvement not only allow Coursera and its partners to work towards better learning outcomes, but it also allows them to develop tools and coursework that better illustrate the application of theoretical concepts in industrial practice. Feedback from industry players bridges a currently widening gap between academia and industry which has led to our currently worsening skills gap.
Source: Coursera
“Strong industry-academia-government collaboration that focuses on the rapid deployment of high-quality digital and human skills training will be key to ensuring that the Malaysian workforce remains resilient and competitive amid rapid technological transformation“
Coursera is already the interjection of academia and industry; it, therefore, really comes as no surprise that companies are also adopting Coursera as a partner for their internal training and upskilling programs. Naturally, some of these courses include the adoption of courses from other partners. In fact, partners like Panasonic Appliances Marketing Asia Pacific have already curated online learning programs which have seen successful adoption among their staff. Panasonic’s program alone boasts more than 1,200 enrollments with over 10 learning hours each.
Embracing the Future of Learning by Embracing the Future of Work
It should already be apparent that learning and work are intricately linked. With the advent of technology, both have taken similar paths in their evolution. This has only been accelerated by the recent pandemic. As the world is continuing to work both remotely and in hybrid, so too must learning and education. In fact, globalization isn’t just something happening in the commercial market, it’s happening even when it comes to work. Jobs are no longer bound by physical boundaries and location. You can be in Malaysia and work for a company based in the United Kingdom or vice versa. Jobs will go to the most qualified and no longer to the one who is nearest to the office.
Coursera learners are living proof of this. Many of them are hired by partners for remote jobs outside their country of residence. Coursera itself is a company that works nearly exclusively remotely. This is just a glimpse of an inevitable future that we are seeing unfold. It goes without saying that learning should and will inevitably take the same course. In fact, it is already with MOOCs and micro-credentials looking to outperform degrees when it comes to employability in the near future.
