¹Abheenaye C. Gokhool, ²Upasna Bhunjun Gokhool, ³Vandanah Gooria

^1,2,3Open University of Mauritius

DOI : https://doi.org/10.58806/ijsshmr.2025.v4i12n24

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ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost all countries including Mauritius and has caused a sharp rise in unemployment and underemployment. Many employees have lost their jobs or been made redundant due to the pandemic. To counter this situation, the Human Resource Development Council, Mauritius in conjunction with the Open University of Mauritius has empowered adults through an upskilling and reskilling course. The purpose of this study is therefore to analyse the learning experiences of learners and perceived satisfaction of the course and to determine whether they have been able to acquire new skills or upgrade their current skills through reskilling and upskilling. This study is of a quantitative nature and an online structured questionnaire has been used to collect data from four (4) cohorts which have successfully completed the course. The findings indicate that reskilling and upskilling were effective and learners were very satisfied with the course. They also had a positive opinion about the course and some of them have been able to upgrade their skills while others have acquired new skills. It can also be observed that they were more satisfied with the Office Skills module. Furthermore, the findings reveal that the respondents have proposed IT skills as an additional skill they might need in the future, to empower themselves. This can be considered while updating the course or by developing a course dedicated to IT skills which learners can apply in their respective workplace.

KEYWORDS:

Reskilling, Upskilling, learner experiences, learner satisfaction, lifelong learning

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VOlUME 04 ISSUE 12 December 2025