Mexico City, Mexico - Carlos Slim, the world’s second-richest person, forged a partnership with Coursera Inc. to translate online classes from colleges such as Stanford University into Spanish.

The news was announced recently at a press conference in Mexico City by Carlos Slim, a Mexican business magnate and philanthropist, and Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller. The pair expressed their shared goal to improve access to high-quality content in Spanish.

By the end of this year, Coursera and the Carlos Slim Foundation expect to translate about 50 free online courses. Subjects will include computer science, public health, and leadership, tailored to Latin America’s employment needs.

The foundation is also currently partnered up with Mexico National University and Tecnológico de Monterrey to make more original Spanish-language courses available.

"Through online education, Coursera is making courses available to millions of people, including the poorest who are most in need, instead of only to a small number of students," Koller said. "The idea is to take someone who is relatively low-skilled and give them the abilities to be eligible for a white-collar job. We are in it for the long haul, and so is the Slim Foundation."

Coursera, the rising star of the online education space, is based in Palo Alto, California. The company brings high-quality education to millions of students in emerging nations. Since it launched in 2012, Coursera has seen rapid adoption of its free and cheap video courses, offering almost 600 classes from more than 100 institutions including Princeton, Duke, Stanford, Northwestern, and Yale Universities.

"Classes that are translated into other languages are sometimes viewed twice or three times more than any other course," Koller said.

Mathematical Thinking

The initiative with Slim’s foundation will include courses such as Stanford’s introduction to mathematical thinking, Slim said at the Mexico City event.

The Slim Foundation has also backed a project to translate the free online classes offered by Khan Academy, a nonprofit educational website.

Slim, who controls Latin American mobile-phone company America Movil SAB, has a fortune of $66.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, trailing only Bill Gates among the world’s richest. Coursera didn’t say how much the Slim Foundation is contributing for the Spanish translations.

"The objective is to offer the highest level of education from the world’s best universities," said Slim. "With it comes a commitment, on the part of the foundation and the companies it represents, to extend our offering and achieve universal access to broadband."

"Learning Hubs"

Coursera has been making headway in Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Last October, the foundation announced that in the future it would open up dozens of digital libraries — dubbed "Learning Hubs" — in cities throughout Latin America and around the world. Many people don’t have reliable Wi-Fi access, which is a huge problem for online education providers. The Learning Hubs will offer free high-speed broadband Internet, and will typically reside on university campuses or embassies.