Coursera CEO: “If you don’t have connections, you’ll starve for both skills development and access to financial opportunities.”
As it usually does, the World Economic Forum uses its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, as a platform for business and political leaders on how to handle complex, interrelated global mega-trends. And it was clear in a panel focused on re-skilling the global workforce that speakers at the time narrowed down the role of connectivity (and provided it to telecom operators and ecosystem stakeholders) to make educational content readily available as soon as possible.
As an interrelated trend, the telecom set is aware that they have a fundamental role to play in increasing connectivity with the community under them and the service; They further clarified that the government has a fundamental role to play in providing incentives for setting up broadband infrastructure in those communities. As we have seen during the COVID-19 epidemic, the connection emphasizes the ability to continue learning outside the classroom. If you extend that context to the existing workforce and those who want to join the workforce but lack useful skills, support connection education, learning creates a more capable workforce, a more capable workforce for a stronger economy.
But there is another level. 5G is being pedaled worldwide as essential for connecting the disconnected. But 5G, in its purest form, is a software-defined, cloud-native technology. Here’s the other level: Operators themselves, wanting to leverage the maximum and best use of 5G, have identified efficiency gaps in their own companies against the backdrop of moving from hardware-first to software-first operational paradigms.
In 2017, Lady Marieme Jamme launched the iamtheCODE initiative with the goal of training 1 million African girls in coding; The effort is a collaboration between government, business and investors. Speaking in Davos, Jammeh said the reason he did so was born out of frustration with access to infrastructure, content and connectivity. To draw a lasting congratulations from the audience, Jamie told the story of not learning the alphabet until he was 16, then learned seven coding languages in two years. “No one like me is supposed to be in this room,” he said. “If we’re going to talk about digital skills and people’s re-engagement, we need to give people meaningful access, invest in the last mile of education so that girls like me can sit here in 2030 and share their stories.
Jamme continued: “I’m building the world’s largest coder pipeline … if you don’t invest now, [in] 2030, don’t ask me for my Java coders …[The] The thing everyone is struggling with right now is connectivity. Not everyone has Wi-Fi … We really need to look at our heart and think again, what can we do to take care of our people? As I said to our President, if you do not take care of the people, they will take care of you. ”
Coursera CEO Jeff Magioncalda called the connection “necessary.” Linking connectivity-enabled education to workforce development and economic growth, he said, “Not only are learning opportunities accessible through technology, but job opportunities through technology are becoming increasingly accessible. So if you don’t have the connection, you’re starving for both skills development and access to economic opportunities. This is a problem that the government needs to address and I think they can deal with the telecom providers. ” You can get … Wi-Fi is really valuable. ”
