Due to the transition from the carbon economy to value-added production and the difficulties caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, the country felt the need to rethink its approach to education. The growing demand for a qualified workforce with digital skills reflects the need to reform the higher education system. According to a report prepared by Tableau, by 2025, 70% of workers are expected to actively use data in their activities, which is a fact that supports the work of Kazakhstan in preparing students for modern challenges. This includes difficulties such as the language barrier, qualification mismatch, limited international experience, and technology integration.
Minister of Science and higher education of Kazakhstan
Sayasat Nurbek noted that in order to switch to high-cost production, the
country needs a qualified workforce. In this context, in September 2022,
President of Kazakhstan Kassym Jomart Tokayev discussed the possibilities of
cooperation with the general director of the Coursera platform, Jeff
Magdonikalda. As a result, the Ministry of Science and higher education of
Kazakhstan became a partner with Coursera and introduced professional
certificates and courses to prepare students for such popular areas as
cybersecurity and programming.
Under the partnership, professional certifications,
courses and special programs were offered to train students in the areas of
cybersecurity, project management, UX design and software development. Although
initially the project was limited to 25 universities, it expanded to 93 higher
education institutions within a year. Coursera courses were gradually included
in the curricula, offering students mixed (gibrid) teaching and independent
study areas.
In 2023, 853 self-taught Coursera courses replaced 116 University subjects, and the road share from 3,244 courses was combined into 1,631 subjects. In 2023 alone, more than 46 thousand students received 73 thousand certificates in various specialties.
Source: https://primeminister.kz/ru/news/tsifrovaya-transformatsiya-v-sfere-vysshego-obrazovaniya-29245