Many skills that are critical today did not exist 15 years ago. It’s often difficult for a working adult to go back to school and get a degree,” says Coursera Co-Founder and President Daphne Koller.  “We are working with our university partners to create a new, targeted unit of education that’s more than a single course and less than a full degree, which can help people rapidly acquire expertise in a new and relevant topic.”

Over the past nine months, we have seen a surge in worldwide demand with more than 1.5 million learners participating in Specializations. We’ve also seen the number of Verified Certificates (VCs) issued in 2014 double in volume due to Specializations. Over 60% of all learners earning a Verified Certificate share it on LinkedIn to boost their profile. 

"Faculty from our nationally ranked computer science, advertising, and business departments are pooling their expertise to create in-depth experiences that will give learners eminently marketable skills in cutting-edge fields, validated with a certification. The opportunity to share our insights and vision of these rapidly evolving areas with such a broad and committed audience is an exciting prospect for us." Deanna Raineri, Associate Dean, Illinois

Coursera has also seen a great response from universities, professors and companies looking to join forces and be at the forefront in creating new pathways to career success. To bridge the gap, Specializations offer a unique final project that allows learners to apply what they’ve learned to relevant, real-world scenarios. For example, the final project in the Data Science Specialization offered by Johns Hopkins University is in collaboration with the predictive text analytics company, SwiftKey. Learners have the opportunity to work with SwiftKey engineers to develop text prediction systems. Coursera has also partnered with Google to highlight the top 5 Android final projects in the Google Play store—a tangible way to immediately demonstrate your skillset in an impactful way.

"We see data science as a core competency, like reading or writing or math. What started as a meeting of the minds at JHU turned into a brand-new set of classes created specifically for Coursera. We've been astounded by the learner response, and by the quality of the work being produced. To be able to create something that caters to aspiring data scientists across disciplines who want to take the next step in their careers brings a whole new definition to being an educator who has an impact on the world.”

“We envision new credentials for the 21st century, and are working closely with our partner institutions, as well as private sector companies, to make this vision a reality,” explains CEO Rick Levin. So whether you aspire to be a Project Manager, a Cloud Computing expert, a Digital Marketer or want to master any field, build your skills fast with Specializations.

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