Finland offers EU citizens free online training on the basics of Artificial Intelligence

The country will provide free access to an online course created by the University of Helsinki that will be available in all the official languages of the European Union. The aim is to respond to the challenges posed by the transformation of work and digitalisation by training people in future skills.

During 2020-2021, Finland will provide European citizens with free access to an online course named ‘The Elements of AI’. The initiative, which aims to offer EU citizens free training in future skills, was made public in Brussels on 10 December 2019, in the margins of the meeting of the EU employment ministers.

The course, already published in Finnish, English, Swedish and Estonia, will be made available in all the official EU languages soon, informed the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

This initiative by the Finnish Presidency aims to respond to the challenges posed by the transformation of work and to reinforce the digital leadership of the EU.

‘The Elements of AI’ is a series of free online courses created by the University of Helsinki and the Finnish tech company Reaktor. It is designed to encourage people to learn the basics of artificial intelligence, whatever their age or education.

“Our investment has three goals: we want to equip EU citizens with digital skills for the future; we wish to increase practical understanding of what artificial intelligence is; and by doing so, we want to give a boost to the digital leadership of Europe,” said Minister of Employment Timo Harakka.

“The significance of AI is growing. To make use of it, we need digital skills. Changing labour markets, the transformation of work, digitalisation and intensifying global competition all mean one thing for the EU: we must invest in people. Every EU citizen should have the opportunity to pursue continuous lifelong learning, regardless of age and educational background,” the Minister said.

The Elements of AI is a series of free online courses created by Reaktor and the University of Helsinki. According to official statements of the developers, this is an initiative meant to encourage as broad a group of people as possible to learn what AI is, what can (and can’t) be done with AI, and how to start creating AI methods. The courses combine theory with practical exercises and can be completed at each one’s pace.

So far, the course gathered participants from over 90 countries. Around 40% of participants so far have been women, more than double the average in computer science courses. Over 25% of students are over the age of 45. The website has been visited 5,6M times with an average time on site of 5,3 minutes.

Elements of AI has already trained more than 1% of the Finnish population on the basics of artificial intelligence.

Free and open to all, the beautifully designed Elements of AI is an online course like no other: It explains what artificial intelligence is, what it can (and can’t) do, and how it affects our lives – all in easy-to-grasp terms, with no programming or complicated math required.

The course grew out of a partnership between Reaktor Inc. and the University of Helsinki. It is an agenda-setting paragon of a corporation and the government coming together to inspire, educate, and do good in the world.

The course can be found at: https://course.elementsofai.com