Guyanese must optimise benefits for country’s development – PSC Chair

…as Private Sector, Coursera start nationwide upskill partnership

Bridging the gap between emerging job markets and skills to support such sectors has moved one step closer with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and Coursera.

This signing, facilitated on Thursday, comes after weeks of consultations, and will bring about training programmes facilitated by Coursera that would upskill persons in all sectors. One of the first initiatives is a survey to identify the skills gap and needs of the labour market, after which the training would be rolled out.
Senior Advisor at Coursera, Chad Pasha, underscored that nationwide upskilling would develop the skills on demand in the Private Sector. He noted that Guyanese need to prepare for the jobs that would come on stream from the budding oil and gas industry.
“As the country’s economic landscape rapidly evolves, it is imperative for Guyanese citizens to have the opportunity to learn the skills and earn the credentials needed to continuously prepare them for today’s and tomorrow’s job markets. There are now much fewer barriers to accessing the world’s best online education. Learners don’t need pre-qualification for the vast majority of Coursera courses. You don’t even need constant internet connection to download our content offline,” he noted.
Already, there are 65,000 Guyanese learners enrolled in over 248,000 courses. The project aims to offer different and highly relevant learning opportunities.
“Going forward, the Private Sector Commission and Coursera will work together to understand the skills needs across Private Sector organisations and the skills gaps among the labour force. We are currently working with the PSC to map these needs to a Private Sector survey,” Pasha has said.
PSC Chairman Paul Cheong added that there is a new Guyana in the making, and stakeholders must capitalise on opportunities. He also said the country’s landscape is changing quite rapidly, and people must keep up with this pace.
“Guyana’s economy is growing at a rapid pace. This year, it is projected to grow 60 per cent. That growth and development create also the need for the requisite skills to participate in the country’s development…We need to, as citizens of this country, put ourselves in a place to optimise whatever benefit we can get through the contribution we would be making to our country’s development. So, we look forward to many of our people coming on board outside to get the requisite training that they require,” the PSC Chairman relayed.
Launched in 2012, Coursera is now one of the largest learning platforms in the world, with over 102 million registered learners. Coursera collaborates with over 250 leading universities and industry partners, including Yale University, University of Michigan, Google and IBM, to offer a broad catalogue of content and credentials, including courses, specialisations, professional certificates, guided projects and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Institutions and Governments around the world use Coursera to upskill and reskill their employees and citizens.
“We now have a golden opportunity to increase the economic potential and quality of life of thousands of Guyanese citizens, as well as improve Guyana’s attractiveness for investment, its competitiveness on a global footprint, its growth trajectory, and the ecosystem for innovation which leaves no citizen behind. We must lower the barrier to entry in education, and allow people from vastly different skill sets, backgrounds, abilities coming from different parts of the country to be able to have equal chances at improving themselves to the best of their ability,” Pasha added.