Government Spotlight: Tomouh Unifies Learning and Embeds Lifelong Learning Across Abu Dhabi Government with Coursera
Abu Dhabi Government's Department of Government Enablement (DGE) integrated Coursera for Government into Tomouh, its AI-powered digital learning platform, to create a unified, government-wide capability ecosystem.
About the program
Scope: Government-wide capability platform and lifelong learning initiative for public-sector workforce development
Partners:
Coursera for Government
DGE Abu Dhabi (GovAcademy/Tomouh)
Program leadership:
Mai AlDossari, director, DGE Abu Dhabi
Region:
Middle East and Africa (Abu Dhabi, UAE)
Industry:
Government / Public Sector
Program objectives:
Replace fragmented, entity-level learning with a single government-wide capability platform
Embed lifelong learning behaviors across the workforce through continuous, learner-driven development
Align learning investments to Abu Dhabi Government’s Human Capital Strategy and transformation agendas
Scale future skills development in AI, digital transformation, data, cybersecurity, and leadership
Improve visibility into skills gaps and workforce readiness through analytics and skills insights
Key skill areas:
Artificial intelligence, including generative AI (GenAI)
Digital transformation and future skills
Data literacy and analytics
Cybersecurity awareness and capability building
Leadership and management development
Productivity and operational excellence
Overview and challenges
Abu Dhabi Government's learning landscape was fragmented across platforms and entities. Limited visibility into workforce capability created inconsistent access to development and slowed readiness for priority transformation agendas. This created an opportunity to establish a single government-wide ecosystem connecting learning, skills insight, and workforce development. The ecosystem also aligned talent growth with Abu Dhabi's future-readiness priorities.
As Abu Dhabi accelerates its transformation into a knowledge-based economy, GovAcademy identified that the need went beyond training delivery. According to GovAcademy, traditional top-down training models were no longer enough to equip employees for the future of work. The goal became to embed lifelong learning as a shared value across departments. Learning needed to be continuous, accessible, and relevant for employees at every career stage, from job seekers and early-career employees to senior leaders and pre-retirees.
The partnership
GovAcademy launched Tomouh, Abu Dhabi Government's AI-powered digital learning platform. The platform integrated Coursera as a core component of its learning ecosystem, giving government employees access to world-class learning aligned to strategic priorities. Coursera content was embedded into personalized learning journeys, role-based pathways, AI-powered recommendations, targeted learning campaigns, and government-wide activation and awareness efforts.
The rollout scaled across more than 70 government and semi-government entities through a phased approach. Teams enabled technology, engaged stakeholders, secured executive support, worked with learning champions, and held workshops, roadshows, webinars, and engagement sessions. Beyond learning delivery, the initiative also drove unexpected benefits. These included stronger cross-entity collaboration, a more standardized approach to capability development, and improved workforce insights that support data-driven talent decisions.
Personalized, skills-based learning supports development at scale
Tomouh was designed to shift learning from periodic, role-agnostic training to continuous development that is personalized and aligned to workforce priorities.
Coursera-powered journeys focus on priority capabilities
Through Tomouh, the program applied Coursera's extensive content library and Professional Certificates, Skills Tracks, role-based learning pathways, industry-recognized credentials, and hands-on learning opportunities. These elements were curated into learning journeys focused on high-priority domains such as AI, digital transformation, data, cybersecurity, leadership, and future skills.
Role-based pathways serve diverse workforce needs
To serve a diverse workforce across entities, functions, and career levels, the program segmented learning opportunities for leaders, managers, technical specialists, and general employees. This helped ensure each group had development pathways relevant to their needs.
Skills insights guide workforce development decisions
Skills insights and learning analytics identified capability gaps and tracked progress. This helped shift the program from a one-size-fits-all approach to a more strategic, skills-based development model. Standardized digital content also reduced the need for custom course development and accelerated deployment across entities.
Identifying skills gaps
Government priorities and workforce insights shape the skills strategy
The skills strategy combined government transformation objectives and priority capability areas. It also drew on skills assessments, learner behavior data, course consumption trends, and stakeholder feedback across entities.
The focus remained on future-ready skills, including AI, digital transformation, data literacy, cybersecurity, leadership, and productivity. Learning investments were directed toward areas most tied to workforce readiness and public-sector transformation goals.
Learner outcomes
New skills support digital transformation and operational improvement
Through Tomouh and Coursera, employees applied new skills in workplace settings to support innovation and operational improvement across entities. Learners used AI, data, leadership, cybersecurity, and digital transformation learning to improve processes, enhance decision-making, and automate routine tasks.
AI-focused pathways, in particular, helped employees begin using GenAI tools in practical ways, supporting research, analysis, content creation, and productivity. These pathways also strengthened confidence to use AI responsibly in government environments.
Impact
From 2024 to 2026, Abu Dhabi Government used Tomouh, powered by Coursera, to deliver outcomes that show system-wide skill-building and transformation progress.
The program unified access and standardized development across entities. It shifted learning from fragmented, entity-level initiatives to a single government-wide ecosystem, improving consistency of access and approach across departments.
It also enabled faster readiness for priority transformation agendas. This included rapid rollout of learning in emerging domains, especially AI (including GenAI), cybersecurity, data, and digital transformation. This became possible without extensive custom content development cycles.
Tomouh strengthened workforce insights and decision support by using skills data, analytics, and engagement trends. These insights helped identify high-demand capabilities, shape targeted pathways, and give leadership visibility into workforce readiness.
The program also supported GovAcademy's objective to embed lifelong learning behaviors across the workforce. It did this through personalization, curated journeys, campaigns, and recognition programs, including the Tomouh Challenge, which helped make learning continuous, motivating, and relevant.
Looking ahead
GovAcademy continues to build Tomouh as a driver of Abu Dhabi Government's Human Capital Strategy. The platform is expanding skills-based learning aligned to future-readiness priorities and strengthening the use of analytics and AI-powered personalization to guide capability building.
With Coursera integrated into Tomouh, the government is reinforcing a shift from training as an event to learning as a sustained behavior. This shift supports a more agile, digitally enabled, and future-ready public-sector workforce.
This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.