The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, is participating in a new program to add technology-oriented courses to the online learning network Coursera to better prepare job seekers in the highly specialized tech sector. Coursera last month launched its Global Skills Initiative, bringing top companies and universities together to produce a set of courses, called specializations, which teach a particular skill area that ends with a real-world “capstone” project. The goal is to advance access to job-relevant skills around the world. Time to completion varies based on one’s personal schedule, but most learners are able to complete the specialization in about seven months. The first course in the SDSC specialization, sponsored by Splunk, a software company focused on analyzing machine-generated data, is called “Introduction to Big Data,” to start September 15. To read further, please visit http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/sdsc_participates_in_coursera_global_skills_initiative.