Coursera: New AI Certificate Programs & Specializations from IBM, Amazon, Microsoft

Unprecedented demand for artificial intelligence skills is driving a sudden enrollment surge at Coursera, the Silicon Valley online education provider.

“We’re getting about six enrollments per minute on generative AI titles,” the firm’s CEO, Jeff Maggioncalda, told the crowd during his September keynote address at the 2024 Coursera Connect conference in Las Vegas. “We now have almost a million generative AI enrollments in just the third quarter of 2024 alone, and three million enrollments in generative AI content on Coursera.

“There’s a real demand out there to learn about this,” he told the audience at Caesars Palace. “People know that the world is changing, and the rate of learning and the ability to learn these skills will be very important.”

Maggioncalda next pointed to a chart showing the most popular AI-focused titles available to the 160 million registered users on Coursera’s platform around the world. Vanderbilt University, the University of Michigan, and Arizona State University offered the most popular titles from universities, while Google, DeepLearning AI, and Amazon Web Services offered the most popular industry courses. Coursera partners like these have already created more than 500 AI courses and credentials “to teach people what this means and how to use it responsibly,” he said.

Later in his presentation, Maggioncalda talked about a new global survey of university leaders his firm had released that morning called the Micro-Credentials Impact Report 2024. “We’re seeing a lot of business and industry content become very interesting to leaders in universities—in particular, professional certificates and industry microcredentials,” he said.

Higher education industry experts view microcredential and certificate programs as essential incentives for universities to offer that can encourage millions of potential students with some college but no degree to re-enroll. Recently we covered this trend in two of our OnlineEducation.com feature articles, “Comebackers: How Colleges Can Help Returning Students Re-Enroll and Graduate” and “Microcredentials: Can They Help Stop-Outs Graduate From College?”

In the Coursera survey’s results, an overwhelming 94 percent of those college leaders believe that industry microcredential programs could strengthen their graduates’ skills and boost the odds those alumni would land good jobs. About 51 percent of those campus leaders also reported their institutions already offer industry microcredential programs that supplement their university’s academic curricula. Out of the latter group, 53 percent said their institutions even offer such microcredential programs for academic credit toward degrees.

“So for all the people who say that universities are too slow and that degrees will become irrelevant, they’re failing to realize the power of adaptability and collaboration,” Maggioncalda said. “Universities are integrating industry content into their curricular offerings for the benefit of their students, their faculty and the employers who hire their graduates, and this is happening at a faster and faster rate.”

Maggioncalda then pointed out that Coursera had expanded the firm’s collaborations with academic credit recommendation agencies to help facilitate the integration of industry microcredentials into college and university programs. In the United States, one such agency that Coursera works with is ACE, the American Council on Education.

Subject matter and academic experts who work for ACE’s college credit recommendation service review certificate and industry microcredential programs to ensure they meet generally accepted American college standards for academic rigor and educational quality. Colleges and universities can more easily integrate such programs into their curricula once they’ve won college credit recommendations from ACE.

“There’s a collaboration that we just have not seen before between industry and higher education,” Maggioncalda told the audience. “And I think it is really something that is growing, and growing quickly.”

Maggioncalda additionally pointed out that 12 million students worldwide have enrolled in Coursera’s professional certificate programs since Google launched the first IT support certificate on the platform in January 2018, as we discuss in more depth later in this article. He then announced seven new entry-level professional certificate programs from industry partners with an artificial intelligence focus to prepare students for “the jobs of the future.”

Marni Baker Stein, Coursera’s chief content officer, describes those new programs in an article on the firm’s website. She points out that some new industry partners in this group, like Amazon, are offering their programs on Coursera’s platform for the very first time. She also says that this group of certificates will prove particularly valuable for early-career AI beginners and non-degree holders who want to break into or make progress in high-demand careers.

Along with 7,000 other courses and programs, all these new entry-level certificate programs are available through Coursera Plus, the company’s little-known $59 monthly subscription plan. The plan appears to have been designed to save students money if they enroll in two or more courses at a time.

Some advanced program titles are not available through Coursera Plus, so it’s a good idea to check with the company before enrolling to see if the plan offers a particular title. This September 2024 review of the company’s numerous pricing plans by Business Insider clarifies some of the Plus plan’s details and suggests additional money-saving opportunities.

Briefly, these seven innovative new AI-focused professional certificate programs include:

• Compensation and Benefits Analyst Entry-Level Professional Certificate (seven courses) from ADP – Through expert instruction and hands-on projects, this program provides skills in total rewards, health benefits, compensation strategies and other areas. Learners complete 25 work samples that demonstrate their skills to potential employers.
• Payroll Specialist Entry-Level Professional Certificate (five courses) from ADP – This program offers a comprehensive payroll foundation, covering process, management, customer service, and data analysis. Learners complete eight work samples that demonstrate their skills to potential employers.
• Junior Software Developer Entry-Level Professional Certificate (seven courses) from Amazon – This program enables learners without a degree or experience to launch an in-demand career in software development in as few as only three months. Students build job-ready skills by learning Java, full-stack web development, and generative AI skills needed for typical entry-level positions.
• Data Engineering Professional Certificate (four courses) from DeepLearning.AI and AWS – Led by author and acclaimed data engineering expert Joe Reis, this advanced certificate program equips learners with the skills to excel in their careers. Students will gain hands-on experience with AWS and open-source tools while mastering the principles and best practices of effective data engineering, plus discover how to leverage data to create and drive business value.
• Game Design Professional Certificate (eight courses) from Epic Games – This program prepares learners with no experience to launch in-demand game design careers. Learners will build worlds that captivate and inspire through hands-on training featuring Epic’s Unreal Engine platform. Students also learn audio/visual commands, level design, and Blueprint scripting, plus user experience and interface (UX/UI) development.
• iOS and Android Mobile App Developer Entry-Level Professional Certificate (12 courses) from IBM – Students will learn to design, build & maintain mobile applications by applying cross-platform skills. Through practical exercises, learners will master essential tools and technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flutter, Dart, React Native, and Apple’s programming language Swift, while building a portfolio that will impress potential employers.
• Program Manager Entry-Level Professional Certificate (six courses) from IBM – Learners master strategic execution, portfolio planning, and risk management through this PMI-PgMP certification program. Students will prepare for the exam and gain hands-on experience as program managers by creating business cases, program plans, and roadmaps.
• Public Relations and Communications Associate Entry-Level Professional Certificate (five courses) from Microsoft – Students learn essential job-ready PR, media relations, and strategic planning techniques, along with skills in applying generative AI applications for daily work. Through hands-on projects, learners develop practical in-demand skills that create effective public relations strategies, engaging content, and robust crisis communication plans – plus gain insights through analyzing reporting metrics. This program doesn’t require a degree or experience, and students can earn their certificates in as few as five months.

Coursera’s article continues by announcing that Google has updated their portfolio of professional certificate programs to include generative AI content provided by the company’s industry experts. Coursera says that the new versions of these entry-level programs now feature “practical, field-specific AI training” within the readings, videos, and activities.

For example, one of these certificate programs that teaches information technology support formed a key component of Google’s initial training that the company first launched on the Coursera platform back in 2018. The updated version of this six-month program now features six new videos explaining how to use generative artificial intelligence within IT support assignments.

Three of those new videos explain how AI can help IT professionals enhance their support skills, communicate technical concepts, and troubleshoot. Other videos show how AI can automate routine IT-related support tasks, simplify documentation, and identify security risks.

Google’s certificate programs and course descriptions appear at these Coursera URL links:

• IT Support
• Cybersecurity
• Data Analytics
• Digital Marketing & E-commerce
• Project Management
• UX Design

Coursera says that according to research from the University of Toronto, more than 50 percent of folks around the world aren’t certain how ChatGPT might be useful in their work. So to help workers boost their productivity by applying artificial intelligence within their specific job roles, IBM and Microsoft have introduced 14 new specializations on the Coursera platform.

Microsoft AI Specializations

All the Microsoft specializations teach generative AI skills using Microsoft Copilot, the company’s free chatbot built on OpenAI’s GPT-4 large language model. Coursera says these specializations “help learners integrate Copilot into their day-to-day work.”

Learners can complete each specialization in a month, and each program requires between five and ten hours a week. Only the software development specialization targets intermediate-level learners with work experience; all the rest are appropriate for entry-level beginners.

• Copilot: Your Everyday AI Companion
• Copilot for Data Science
• Copilot for Marketing
• Copilot for Sales
• Copilot for Software Development

IBM AI Specializations

By contrast, IBM’s specializations target learners who’ve achieved intermediate-level experience within each job function. These specializations also require significantly more time to earn certificates than Microsoft’s offerings. However, the reviews and ratings are outstanding for each of IBM’s specializations, with most scoring above a 4.5 average rating on a five-point scale.

• Generative AI for Business Intelligence (BI) Analysts
• Generative AI for Cybersecurity Professionals
• Generative AI for Data Analysts
• Generative AI for Data Engineers
• Generative AI for Data Scientists
• Generative AI for Human Resources
• Generative AI for Product Managers
• Generative AI for Project Managers
• Generative AI for Software Developers