Private Sector commits to accepting Coursera certificates for employment

Sep 27, 2020 News

The Private Sector Commission (PSC) has committed to accepting certificates from Coursera submitted by persons seeking employment.

The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (Ministry of Education photo)

This comes after a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the PSC and the Ministry of Education (MOE).
At the signing ceremony, Chairman of the PSC, Nicholas Deygoo-Boyer, announced that it was the Commission’s pleasure to collaborate with the MOE to sign the Memorandum. Boyer stated that his Commission is elated to be a promoter of the initiative and to play a part in empowering the Guyanese workforce.
The MOU was signed by Boyer on behalf of the PSC and Alfred King, the Permanent Secretary of the MOE, signed on their behalf.
Coursera is a respected online course provider that originated in the United States of America in 2012.
At the ceremony, the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, explained that the course became a major help to those who had been forced into unemployment before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Minister stated that Coursera and the Commonwealth of Learning collaborated to form a WorkForce Recovery Program that offers a range of online courses to skill and re-skill as well as enhance the qualifications of unemployed persons.
Manickchand stated that as a member of the Commonwealth, Guyana received invitations first in March then later in June. However, the offer was not accepted by the previous government. When she took office in August, another opportunity to utilize the program was given. They accepted the invitation and soon saw results.
Minister Manickchand noted that following the program’s launch in Guyana, in just over two weeks more than 35,000 persons would have registered for courses. She added that over 17, 500 persons are currently active on the platform working to complete their courses and a total number of 970 persons have graduated from the Coursera program so far.
According to Manickchand, through the partnership with her Ministry, around 4,000 free courses are being offered on the Coursera platform in various areas. Some of these areas include engineering, business studies, social sciences, and computer studies from Ivy League universities.
Also present at the ceremony was Minister of the Public Service, Sonia Parag, who said that her Ministry will also be recognizing these certificates, like the Private Sector.
She said that her Ministry welcomes the initiative wholly and described it as an opportunity for persons to obtain pertinent knowledge from Universities that are globally recognized.
Further, Minister Parag stated that the program’s timing is very convenient since her Ministry would like public servants’ qualifications to be performance and results-oriented.

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