Doha, Qatar: Qatar is at the forefront of moving up its ranking in the employment sector by improving business and data skills, an official has said.

In an interview with The Peninsula, Nikolaz Foucaud, Managing Director of the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region at Coursera explained Qatar’s leadership role in the sector in addition to augmenting the education strategies.

He said: “What we are seeing throughout the region and even at an accelerated pace in Qatar is a focus on a very compelling long-term strategy to start with.”

Remarking on Qatar’s national strategic vision, Foucaud said that various skill gaps will be addressed as a priority, while the national AI strategy launched 5 years ago is expected to be amplified.

The AI strategy in particular played a crucial role in shaping the industry and over the years, Qatar has moved up its places, bolstered by diverse prowess, according to the Global Skills Report.

“So what we’re seeing is the vision now starting to materialize in moving the needle in, Qatari learners and workers’ readiness for the digital age,” he said.

Elaborating on the key role Coursera plays in the inclusivity and accessibility to all students across the globe, the official stated the company’s vision and mission that enable wealth to access the best education.

He stressed that “Accessibility of learning is at the heart of who we are as a company and the founding story of Coursera.”

The market expert said that language is one area where significant investments were made within the past two years. He mentioned that the organisation has invested highly in machine learning and translations of all courses.

At present, Coursera has 4700 courses that are translated through machine learning in 22 languages. It continues to increase every single week and month at an unprecedented pace, which is facilitated by advances in large language models and translations, which makes the process important from an accessibility perspective.

He pointed out that it is also vital to have a ‘personalised individual coach’ to enhance the learning experience in a customised and individualised manner.

“I think that’s how we make education more accessible in Qatar and having the Arabic language is an added goal and then partnerships with governments are a big part of influencing the languages that we prioritise,” he added.

Coursera currently has 148 million registered learners on the platform, while 170,000 students are from Qatar.

In terms of the global ranking skills report, Qatar has moved up its rankings by 18 places to 58 in 2024, as compared to 76 last year. Meanwhile, the country is positioned in third place in the MENA region.