The importance of data for companies, according to CEO Coursera

The digital educational platform Coursera, which was born with different professors from Stanford University, has more than 175 universities that create courses and also They work together with the business sector.

Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera, He spoke with Portafolio about business education incentives, training courses for companies, and joint work with different institutions globally and in Colombia.

Where are the Coursera users?
​
Latin America has 20 million users on Coursera, in North America we have 23 million, in the United States 20 million and Canada with 3 million. In Colombia we have 2.7 million apprentices, in terms of demographic data. The region is one of the most far-reaching, more so than North America. Most of the users are in the early stages of their careers to advance in the development of their professions.

What results are there for the region?
​
The most important countries are Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Argentina. In the region, the median age is 32, which is a bit older than the usual age in educational institutions, however, it is an early stage in many people’s careers. These students are using Coursera to develop their professional skills. Almost half are women, in fact in Colombia half of this population belongs to them and we see how they use Coursera mostly on mobile devices.

(See: At JFK Cooperativa Financiera they facilitate the procedures for you).

What is the percentage of participation by gender on Coursera?
​
Globally we know that 42% are women and 48% are men. During the pandemic there was a participation of women in the virtual sphere. In Colombia, it has always been a little above that average, that is, we have a greater participation of 42% before the pandemic and it has remained stable until 2022.

What were the impacts of the pandemic?
​
In joint work with the IFC (International Finance Corporation), in a survey with more than 10,000 women, in different parts of the world, they asked what was the role of virtual education in the midst of the pandemic and a 45% of women stated that they were there with an average income of less than 45% in their homes. What we see in Mexico is that 65% of that population is below family income. This shows us that the women who are accessing the courses are of low income.

(See: Hyperconnectivity, a data-driven force.)

When IFC asked men and women why they used this type of education, many said the main reason was the flexibility of schedules, because they could study whenever they wanted.

However, another factor to highlight is that security is an important factor in taking virtual education. More than 35% tell us that they take it because it is safer and on the other hand, decisions are also highlighted because they do not want to mobilize. 22% of women prefer virtual education because it helps them balance study with family obligations.

The Coursera digital educational platform, which was born with different professors from Stanford University, today has more than 175 universities that create courses and also work together with the business sector. Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera, spoke with Portafolio about business education incentives, training courses for companies, and joint work with different institutions globally and in Colombia.

(See: Dian and Dane reach a new agreement for access to tax information).

What are the courses that are being taken the most?
​
In Colombia, the most important courses are psychological first aid, English for professional development, introduction to Python programming, personal finance. We also have learning to learn, which is a course in the United States, and additional ones.

How does Coursera promote integration with the world of work?

We work with different universities around the world generating content for Coursera. In Latin America we have the Universidad de los Andes, which is one of our favorites. We also work with the National University of Colombia, among others. In the same way, we work together with companies that are our allies. What we have on our platform are different formats and courses that last more or less than 10 hours, regarding a specific topic where they learn to use software to know how it should be applied in a real context within a project.

(See: AnalyTICs observatory is presented to collect information on ICT).

Additionally, we have undergraduate and postgraduate degrees as well as master’s degrees. When we work with companies what we do is support professionals who are entering, leaving or jumping careers in different fields.

What courses do companies take?
​
There are three types of courses that are in demand by companies. The first has to do with data science. In any business around the world, it is moving towards the digital world, looking for its clients in social networks or online. So they have to know about that digital marketing and building digital experiences for their customers. Today the world is managed through data, regarding skills, employees, the production chain, everything. In second place, software engineering, everything that has to do with information technology and the third is leadership.

DIANA K. RODRIGUEZ T.
Journalist Portfolio