As of the end of February 2023, the English for Career Development (ECD) Coursera MOOC created by Penn English Language Programs had enrolled over 2 million learners worldwide. The course launched in 2016. Since 2017, the course has held a position amongst the ten most popular Coursera courses worldwide, ranking sixth in 2022. This accomplishment underscores the continued demand for high-quality, accessible online learning resources to support individuals’ career aspirations across the world.
The English for Career Development course provides learners with an understanding of the job search, application, and interview processes in the United States, while encouraging them to compare these processes with those of their home countries. This informative article, “ELP MOOC English for Career Development Reaches 1 Million Learners” posted on September 9, 2020, provides more information about the course’s background.
The popularity of the English for Career Development course on the Coursera platform then led to a fruitful partnership between Banco Santander and the Penn English Language Programs. In 2020, Santander provided 500 scholarships to non-native English speakers to participate in an instructor-guided online English for Professional Development program. Since then, this partnership has continued and expanded with 1,000 new participants joining in 2021 - "Santander Languages Scholarships | English to Boost Your Career – Penn/ELP." This time the learners were able to choose from three of the ELP’s popular Coursera MOOCS which were built on Penn’s Online Canvas LMS for Santander scholarship recipients: English for Career Development, English for Business and Entrepreneurship, and English for S.T.E.M. In 2022, Banco Santander once again provided 1,000 “Santander Languages | English to boost your career 2022 Scholarships” and these learners are in the final week of their courses now.
The ELP is proud of the staff members who assisted in the creation, development, and support of these courses and we are excited to see these great programs grow!
