A new economic infrastructure, built through innovations such as cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence, is propelling work into the “next normal.” In this digital era, career success will depend on the ability to continuously adapt alongside technology. This affects not just the way we work, but fundamentally, the skills we learn. As the institutional bridge between education and work, universities must increasingly ensure that students are equipped with job skills necessary to thrive in this digital world.
These are important topics for university leaders to consider as they prepare students for the workforce:
- How can higher-educational institutions embrace digital capabilities to keep pace with the accelerating rate of technological change?
- How can educators both identify and anticipate the skills of the future?
- How can existing programs of study be reconfigured to ensure that students are job-ready?
Coursera’s latest e-book, Curriculum Mapping for Student Employability, addresses these questions head-on. With more than 86 million learners, 4,000 academic institutions, 300 government entities and 2,000 organizations having used the Coursera platform (as of June 2021), Coursera is uniquely positioned to help higher education institutions align with the skill needs of the modern workforce. The curriculum maps presented in this eBook converge these rich insights with expert curations led by Coursera’s Skills Transformation team.
The six custom curriculum maps featured in this eBook serve as a proposed guideline for universities looking to integrate online learning. Each map demonstrates how universities can leverage courses on Coursera to close present-day gaps and empower students to develop job-ready skills.
Depending on their institutional priorities and policies, universities can incorporate online courses into their curricula as either for-credit offerings or multidisciplinary electives. In the coming months, Coursera will release several features to facilitate such integrations. The first of these features will recommend courses, organized by academic discipline, that universities can consider offering for credit to their students.
By enhancing their core curriculum with content on Coursera, universities can design forward-thinking learning programs effectively and at scale. The results—improved employment outcomes for graduates, deepened understanding of emerging skills among educators, and a more robust talent pipeline for employers—will benefit stakeholders within higher education and far beyond.
For more insights and all six curriculum maps, download the full report here.
33