Fifty thousand slots were provided by Coursera, an online course provider for free, as it partnered with the Department of Science and Technology-Caraga (DoST-Caraga) to help in online learning and address unemployment.
The DoST-Caraga was selected by Coursera as a partner government agency in the Philippines for the “Coursera for Government Program: Workforce Recovery Learning Program.”
Coursera provided 50,000 slots for free access to their learning platform to DoST-Caraga. This initiative aims to back-up unemployment due to automation and new skills requirements as the world transitions to the “new normal” brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This is a great opportunity to strengthen or reinforce the capability of the human resource of the country with minimal cost from the learners," DoST said.
Expenses are limited to Internet or data subscription only. Through this partnership, Filipinos are given free access to around 3,800 courses from top universities and industries worldwide.
Courses include company-specific training programs from Coursera partners like Google and IBM and other business-specific training which can also benefit the MSMEs.
Registered learners may enroll in classes in various fields of physical science and engineering, Information Technology, data science, health, math and logic, language, social sciences, and personal development, among others.
Moreover, this online education platform is designed for the learners to study at their own pace and time. Learners will receive certificates for all courses completed until December 2020. They can take as many courses as they can within this period. The last course enrollment is Oct. 31, 2020.
As of Sept. 28, 2020, 14,845 learners have enrolled in 209,078 courses. So far, 18,470 courses have been completed with 216,995 hours spent.