How Latvia looks like in the Coursera Global Skills Report 2023

In the context of the Coursera Global Skills Report 2023 Anita Līce, Head of Education and Employment of the Employers’ Confederation of Latvia (LDDK), national coordinator of sectoral expert councils, shares her view of Latvia in a European and global context.

“Why do the Coursera studies seem interesting to me? Because the data source is huge: more than 120 million graduates, 7000 institutions, 5400 courses from the world’s top 300 universities and industrial partners,” Anita Līce explains in the article.

The report provides insights into the learning outcomes of 124 million learners from 100 countries around the world in the three most popular areas of education: business, technology, and data science training courses. Globally, Latvia ranks 71st out of 100 countries in achieving excellent skills learning outcomes. However, Latvia is ahead of Estonia and Lithuania, which rank 74th and 81st, respectively.

Main findings of the study:

• Economic growth is closely linked to people's skills.
• Internet access is linked to economic opportunities.
• IEducators from high-income countries are more willing to invest in people's skills.
• Graduates with higher education are more prepared to invest in skills related to the development of artificial intelligence.
• In many countries, the participation of both males and females in online education is equivalent. On average, 43% of Coursera users are women.
• Learners in many countries around the world use professional certificates to get a job related to digital skills. The United States, India, and Nigeria have the highest number of holders of professional certificates.
• Talents with skills can be found around the world.

National and regional skill levels have been assessed against the background of the learning outcomes of the users of the Coursera platform, as well as the learning outcomes of learners, which were assessed in terms of both the complexity of the tasks performed and their assessments.

Europe's region stands out positively in the world:

• First place in the world in business skills, where learners gain competitive or excellent skills in more than half of the countries, including Luxembourg (98%), Switzerland (96%), and Denmark (95%). In Latvia, the rate of business skills is 72%.
• Second place in the world in technology and data science. High-tech students can be found in countries such as Spain (100%), Switzerland (99%), and Ukraine (94%). Only 35% in Latvia.
• High-performing students in data science can be found in countries such as Spain (97%), Luxembourg (95%), and Germany (92%). Only 11% in Latvia.