ASTANA – Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda spoke about Kazakhstan as a successful example of institutional collaboration between government and businesses at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting that took place in Switzerland from Jan. 15-19.
Jeff Maggioncalda, Coursera CEO. Photo credit: weforum.org.
Maggioncalda participated in The Race to Reskill panel session, where experts deliberated on innovative business and policy approaches to support reskilling, upskilling, and job transitions.
Particularly, Maggioncalda discussed the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital transformation on jobs. He explored the skills individuals and institutions will need to thrive in the modern economy and examined how AI can either narrow or widen the opportunity gap globally.
Emphasizing the role of governments in enhancing their higher education systems, Maggioncalda cited Kazakhstan as an example. He discussed the collaborative efforts between the government and businesses, especially the work with the Ministry of Higher Education and Science.
“The government not only laid out the policy framework for the credit transfer but subsidized, sponsored a set of industry certificate licenses, and donated 1,000 licenses per school to 25 different public and private adult education programs. So that they can also sponsor not only the entire training, but at least a pilot test so that universities do not have to go over the financing hurdle to at least start seeing how these types of capabilities can make a difference in the curricular offerings that are available to students,” he said.
In an exclusive interview with the Astana Times during the Astana International Forum in 2023, Maggioncalda commended the remarkable surge in enrollments and praised Kazakhstan’s unwavering dedication to human capital development.
He highlighted the government’s strategic approach to facilitate institutions in providing online skilling, to equip the population with skills conducive to securing quality jobs and fostering economic prosperity.
