At the International Kazakh-Turkish University named after Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, as part of the symposium “Kazakh language - the language of science: traditions and innovations”, the first Coursera center “Turkistan EdTech Lab” was opened in the Turkestan region.

The solemn ceremony was attended by representatives of local executive bodies, teaching staff of universities, President of the international society “Kazakh Tili” Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan Sayasat Nurbek, Rector of the University Zhanar Temirbekova.

“Coursera courses are available to 20,000 Kazakhstani students from 25 regional universities. Currently, more than 50 priority courses are already available in Kazakh and Russian languages. The program is expanding to 600 courses with their localization into the Kazakh language. It is expected that in the next three years, 100,000 Kazakh students and users will have access to the Coursera platform,” said Sayasat Nurbek.

The goal of the Coursera center, opened at the University, is to become a hub for advanced training for specialists in various industries by popularizing and distributing Coursera courses throughout the Turkestan region.

Also, Rauan Kenzhekhanuly, representing the Turkistan EdTech Lab center, emphasized that its task is to improve quality education through the use of new digital technologies, as well as to ensure the availability of knowledge and skills for the teaching staff and students of the university.Also, a mutual partnership has been established between Yasawi University and the international society “Kazakh Tili” in order to ensure the availability of new skills and knowledge in the Kazakh language for users of the Coursera platform.

This center was created on the basis of a mutual cooperation agreement with Ahmed Yasawi University and the exclusive partner of the Coursera educational platform in Kazakhstan, BMG UpSkill. Currently, 360 teachers are trained at the center, the total number of courses is 650.

“Thanks to the opportunities provided to us by the Ministry, our University, as a teacher who has completed several courses, Coursera courses provide us with many advantages as they allow us to improve our skills, knowledge and career prospects. For example, through this platform we have access to high quality content, data that is constantly updated. This is because Coursera offers quality courses taught by top experts in every field through partnerships with leading universities and institutes around the world. It is important to note that Coursera courses are designed to help people keep abreast of industry trends, acquire new skills, and continuously develop professionally,” said Nursultan Nurdinov, Dean of Science and Educational Work of the Faculty of Dentistry, PhD, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Laboratory Disciplines.

It is worth noting that Coursera is a popular online learning platform in the world. It contains about 11 thousand courses from 177 universities around the world.The platform offers courses in computer science, healthcare, medicine and biology, society, systems and information, social sciences and humanities, mathematics and census, economics, finance and business.