The Guyana Government has launched the Public Service Up-skill Platform with Coursera, which will provide continuous, and self-paced online learning to public servants across Guyana to modernize the public sector and enhance job performance.

Speaking at the launch this morning, President Irfaan Ali said it represents an important step in the Government’s push to modernize the public sector which he said is steadily evolving.

He said the ultimate goal is to ensure an improved public service.

“If we don’t do it as a nation at the scale that is necessary, we will not survive in this modern world. What we are doing today is not launching or re-launching a programme, what we are talking about is an agile, results driven, accountable public servants, backed by skilled human capital and technology, that is what we are building. We are building a revolution of the future in the public service,” the President noted.

The Coursera development courses will be tailored to push making the public service more efficient and to remove the burden in the system.

The President said the country’s public service cannot continue to operate the way it has been operating and therefore changes are needed starting with human capital development.

“But more importantly than building this human capacity and capability at this national scale is finding our own solutions and in the next three to four weeks you will see a series of app being launched that we are building ourselves, that we are trusting our young people , our brain power, our technical capability, we are trusting them to drive this process to meet our demand for ourselves, and lead a regional revolution in  what we do” the President said.

Minister of Public Service and Government Efficiency, Zulfikar Ali, hailed the partnership with Coursera saying that it will help Guyana to adopt as the world is rapidly changing. He said the country’s public service risk transformation if it does not adopt to the new realities.

“The skills that were valuable yesterday are quickly being replaced by the skills that we need to know and as a government we have a choice, we can either be swept away by the tide of change or we can, or we can build the ship that allows us to navigate it. Our President, Dr. Ali, has laid out a clear and ambitious vision for our nation, in that vision is a modern, prosperous and efficient public service,” Mr. Ali stated.

The new programme is being seen as a foundational pillar for the new public service that is being fashioned by the government.

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