As Coursera and edeX set the trend for collaborative education, a new Middle Eastern platform joins them, offering internationally acredited university courses–for free.
“Since 2011, there has been a trend of what are called Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) – free online courses offered by the best universities in the world including Stanford, MIT, Harvard and UC Berkeley“, says skillacademy.com founder Bassem Fayek.
These courses allow students take video lessons, prepare assignments, participate in discussion groups, and sit for exams, virtually ignoring the seas and land masses separating them from campus–and the thousands of dollars that would otherwise prevent them from enrolling.
The promise of MOOCs is the prospect of a more democratic system of education–a vital opportunity, given the fact that youth unemployment in the MENA region stands at a whopping 75 million. In Egypt alone, 71% of those unemployed are under 30, which means there is a gap between an expensive and inadequate education and a market whose needs are not met by fresh graduates’ skills.
Fayek is convinced that online learning is the perfect springboard for young graduates to launch themselves successfully into this shifting, and more demanding, job market.”Think about every problem or a challenge we’re facing,” he exclaims. “The reasons for it will all boil down to education.”
For more information – Skill Academy’s website.
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