BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 2. Azerbaijan is becoming one of the leading countries in digital skills, Coursera's Managing Director for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) Nicolaz Foucaud, said during a presentation of the semi-annual results of the "C4IR Academy - National Program," implemented within the framework of joint cooperation between the Center for Analysis and Coordination of the Fourth Industrial Revolution under the Ministry of Economy and the Education Development Fund under the Ministry of Science and Education today, Trend reports.
According to him, the main goal is to provide users with real skills.
"Over the past three months, I have been to many countries, such as Germany, the U.S., and Qatar, and we have had discussions about the development directions and future skills of various countries. During these conversations, one country has aroused my special interest. That country is Azerbaijan, and for this reason I wanted my family to come to Azerbaijan and see this country.
Currently, there are more than 13 years of experience on the Coursera platform, and the activity first started with courses. However, the platform is no longer satisfied with just providing courses; the main goal is to provide users with real skills. I would like to emphasize that no initiative can be successful without users," Foucaud explained.
He added that the world is now moving beyond traditional courses and focusing on innovations. Azerbaijan is among the leading countries in this process. At the same time, he stressed, local universities are also showing great interest in this direction; however, there is still a lot of work to be done.
"By 2030, 59 out of every 100 workers worldwide will need to be retrained. Of these, 11 won't be able to participate in training due to lack of access to digital. According to experts, artificial intelligence can further deepen inequality. Therefore, the development of digital technologies is of great importance in terms of ensuring equal opportunities in the workplace.
Although the main vision of our project began with the promotion of online courses with a small number of students, this initiative now covers a wide audience. Over the past 12 years, the project has grown from 400 students to 191,000 users," Foucaud concluded.
Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel