By Rick Levin, CEO of Coursera
At Coursera, we envision a world in which anyone, anywhere can transform their life through access to high-quality education. We’re making great progress toward realizing that vision – we’ve built an innovative technology platform to provide a rich online learning experience, and we’ve worked with top universities to make more than 1,600 top-quality courses and Specializations available to anyone with an Internet connection.
But we also know that simply making content available isn’t enough. To provide our learners with the best possible support, we need to understand the factors that may be holding them back. That’s why we recently commissioned research into the challenges that today’s young professionals face, with a particular focus on adults aged 22-35 in the United Kingdom.
The results of this research are both troubling and promising. It is clear that this generation feels uncertain about the future, and about their ability to achieve key life and career milestones. 38 percent of the young adults we surveyed said that they felt unprepared to start a family, for example, and half felt that they weren’t prepared to purchase a new car.
However, we also see huge potential for efficient, affordable, skills-based learning to help today’s young professionals build confidence and reach their goals. Many survey respondents listed lack of relevant job skills training as a major factor preventing them from achieving financial security. And an overwhelming majority said that they would consider taking a course to broaden their skills if they felt it would advance their career, although they worried that formal training would be too costly and time-consuming.
In short, although today’s young professionals are worried about the future, they are also motivated and eager to take action to improve their prospects. This research suggests that, for the businesses, education providers, and other institutions who want to equip young professionals to achieve their goals, simply giving them easier access to career-relevant skills training would be a very effective first step.
To view the results and read the full report which includes case studies of members of Generation Never in the UK, please click here.