By Kevin Mills, Head of Public Sector Partnerships
In early 2020, we launched the Coursera Workforce Recovery Initiative to help governments around the world respond to the unemployment crisis caused by the pandemic and automation. Through the program, governments from over 25 U.S. states and 100 countries provided immediate support to displaced workers with free access to online skills training.
Among the participating governments, we collaborated with the Missouri Department of Higher Education & Workforce Development (MDHEWD) to launch a state-wide training program that has helped thousands of displaced workers develop job-relevant skills.
Today, we’re honored to expand our partnership with MDHEWD and support the state’s ongoing recovery efforts by equipping Missourians with the digital and job-readiness skills needed to unlock new career opportunities.
“Last year, Coursera played a major role in our department’s mission to help Missouri’s displaced workers advance their careers,” said Zora Mulligan, Missouri Commissioner of Higher Education. “Coursera provides a free and flexible avenue for Missourians to learn new, marketable skills as they seek new employment or work towards a promotion.”
Through our expanded partnership, Missourians will have free access to over 4,000 of high-quality, job-relevant courses from over 200 top university and industry educators, including the University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, AWS, and Microsoft.
This includes entry-level Professional Certificates taught by leading technology companies like Google, IBM, Meta, and Salesforce. These certificate programs only take a few months to complete, and will help prepare workers without a college degree or technology experience for a wide range of well-paying jobs, such as IT support specialist, project manager, data analyst, and social media marketer.
To ensure accessibility for all learners across web and mobile platforms, we’ve emphasized providing support for screen readers and keyboard navigation, closed captions, visual affordances, and much more.
This expansion marks Coursera’s ongoing commitment to help Missourians unlock economic opportunity through high-quality online learning. We’re excited to welcome Missouri to the growing number of leading U.S. state and local governments partnering with Cousera to drive modern workforce development programs, including the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the New York State Department of Labor, and the City of Chicago.
To learn more about Coursera for Government, visit coursera.org/government.