A free online certificate program can cut the time and cost involved in earning certificates in high-demand fields and help streamline the path to cleared careers.
During the recent Women’s Veterans’ Employability Summit, First Lady Michelle Obama announced the new partnership between the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Coursera, an education platform that partners with universities to offer online courses. The partnership means every veteran is eligible for one free Coursera Verified Certificate.
Coursera’s move to broaden its online certificate program for veterans now makes it easier to refine or improve military skills through courses that directly result in certificates recognized by civilian employers. Under the partnership, enrollment in the program will be offered through the Veteran Employment Center, which will also take responsibility for helping veterans redeem their free credential voucher.
Cleared veterans may be interested in learning more about verified certificates in high-demand career fields ranging from data science to cybersecurity, health care and entrepreneurship
How it works
Veterans interested in cleared careers in data science, for example, may want to check out Coursera’s Specialization Certificate in Data Science. In this program, students are required to complete nine courses: Programming, getting and cleaning data, exploratory data analysis, reproducible research, statistical inference, regression models, practical machine learning and developing data products. Following completion of the courses students take part in a final capstone project designed to demonstrate their ability to apply the skills they learned.
Following completion of all requirements, verified certificates are then issued to students electronically. The certificates bear the logo of the partnering school, along with a certification URL that allows hiring managers to confirm the certificate’s authenticity.
An additional element of Coursera’s online certificate program will include 20 veteran-facilitated learning hubs scattered across the country. The hubs will help veterans learn more about civilian career fields and education requirements specific to a variety of industries. The goal is to offer veterans the opportunity to master those requirements and increase their employability.
To learn more about the variety of Coursera certificates: https://courserahelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us
To learn more about enrolling: http://blog.coursera.org/veterans
