Google is launching a new initiative that will help more than 20,000 Americans with job training and placement through its $100 million Google Career Certificates Fund.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced on Thursday the launch of a $100 million Google Career Certificates Fund, which aims to drive $1 billion in aggregate wage gains.
Google says that the program will equip people with job ready skills in fields like Data Analytics, IT Support, Project Management, and UX Design with no degree or experience required. Pichai said that we were excited to support Social Finance to help expand economic opportunity for more Americans with our $100 million Google Career Certificates Fund.
Social Finance is a national impact finance and advisory nonprofit working with the public, private, and social sectors to create partnerships and investments that measurably improve lives, the organization said.
Pichai said Thursday that this innovative funding model brings together digital skills training and support services to connect more Americans to high-growth, high-paying jobs. We hope it will be transformative for people, their families, and their communities. Raimondo said that the Biden administration is obsessed with creating good-paying jobs for American workers, and it is important for us to come up with creative solutions that allow women and parents to fully participate in our economy. Raimondo said that top business leaders understand that investments like child care are fundamentally investments that enable people to work. That is good for the economy, good for the workers and good for business. She said I look forward to continuing working with Google and its partners behind this innovative program to help families get ahead. Google said that the initiative uses a student-friendly financing model, and that there are no upfront costs for learners to participate, but they only pay program costs via no-interest, low monthly payments if they get a job making at least $40,000 annually. The program will be reinvesting repayments back into it for several years to enable more learners to benefit, Google said, and they hope to encourage others to make training more affordable and accessible for Americans. Google created Career Certificates, developed by Google employees to support training in high-demand fields. According to Google, the program can be completed in three to six months of part-time study, and more than 70,000 people have graduated from the program in the U.S. so far.