Google considers its certifications equivalent to a four-year college degree.
Stephen Shankland/CNET
Google announced a new initiative to help US workers get qualifications in high-paying, high-growth job fields such as data analytics, project management and user experience design. It’ll fund 100,000 online certification scholarships as part of the initiative, the search giant said on Monday.
“College degrees are out of reach for many Americans, and you shouldn’t need a college diploma to have economic security,” Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president of global affairs, said in a release. “We need new, accessible job-training solutions—from enhanced vocational programs to online education — to help America recover and rebuild.”
The certifications don’t require a college degree or prior experience in the field, Google noted. The online certification classes are taught by its employees, with a course taking about six months to complete and considered an equivalent to a four-year college degree.
Google will also commit $10 million in job training grants to communities across the US, including nonprofits organizations YWCA, NPower and JFF. They’ve partnered with Google to provide job skills for women, veterans and underrepresented groups.
