Ottobre, 2022

Ensuring today’s workforce has the skills required for an evolving labor market requires creative approaches. That’s why we’ve been working with higher education to help students and people already in the job market reach their earning potential. Educational institutions in all 50 states, including over 300 universities, community colleges and career and technical education high schools, have incorporated Google Career Certificates to help people begin promising careers in growing fields.

Today, we’re announcing Industry Specializations, a new addition to the Google Career Certificates program. We’ve joined forces with leading universities so people can learn from top experts at Google and world-class faculty in an affordable and accessible way — no experience or application required. The university-built Specializations will provide Google Career Certificate graduates and new learners with additional expertise and skills for jobs in some of the fastest-growing industries.

Learners can build on their skills and access new career opportunities by enrolling in a Specialization to prepare for entry-level jobs like:

• Healthcare IT specialist and healthcare customer support, with Healthcare IT Support by Johns Hopkins University
• Construction manager and project engineer, with Construction Management by Columbia Engineering
• Policy analyst and data analyst, with Fundamentals of Data analytics in the Public Sector with R by the University of Michigan
• Financial analyst and accountant, with Financial Analysis – Skills for Success by University of Illinois’ Gies School of Business
• Sustainability analyst and sustainability coordinator, with Sustainability Analyst Fundamentals by Arizona State University

Plus, top institutions are working with us to reach even more people with the Google Career Certificates. UCLA Extension, one of the first and largest continuing education providers in the country, is offering the Google Career Certificates to any learner, at no cost, through UCLAxOpen. Stanford Digital Education is partnering with the Bay Area Community College Consortium to provide in-person and virtual instruction programs to deliver the Google Career Certificates across the Bay Area. And the SkillUp Google Career Certificate program at Rutgers University provides alumni with free access to the Google Career Certificates through their career services office.

Many of these partnerships are happening state-wide:

• The Technical College System of Georgia launched the Google Career Certificates as a non-credit option to all 22 of their colleges.
• The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education is working with member universities across the state to implement the certificates as a non-credit offering to undergraduates, and will extend access to the community by offering them through university workforce and continuing education offices.
• The North Carolina Community College System has developed credit-bearing courses around the Google Project Management and Data Analytics Certificates and has made them available in their central course catalog for all 58 colleges.
• In addition to these states, community college systems in Connecticut, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio and Virginia are offering Google Career Certificates to help support learners’ employability.

By completing a Google Career Certificate and an Industry Specialization, learners will earn a credential from Google and from the participating university. They will also gain access to jobs through our employer consortium, which includes more than 150 companies — such as Adobe, Deloitte, Lowe’s, Verizon and Google — that are eager to hire talent in these fields.

We’re proud to work with higher education institutions to create additional accessible and flexible pathways for economic mobility. To learn more about these opportunities, visit grow.google/certificates. And if you are an academic institution interested in partnering with us, more information can be found on our website.

^{Image: Hacienda Auroraby Francisco Oller, collection of the Museo de Arte de Ponce on Google Arts & Culture}

My family is of Salvadoran and Mexican descent — with the Indigenous, Afro-Latino and European roots that come with that lineage. One thing that they ingrained in me all my life was the importance of our culture and values. As I got older, these lessons helped me as I came into my truth, including when I came out as queer. I can’t disentangle all these parts of my identity — nor would I want to — and I’ve been lucky enough to have a supportive queer Latinx community around me along the way.

Everyone should have access to these supportive spaces, where they can see themselves and find a sense of self-acceptance and belonging. That’s why Google’s continued commitment to creating these spaces for diverse communities matters so much. I’m glad to see my team at Google.org supporting the culture, history and diversity of Latinos across the U.S., and using our platforms to make sure people can get connected to more resources. Here are a few ways we’re doing so this Hispanic Heritage Month.

Strengthening Latino LGBTQ+ and Indigeneous communities

Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to shine a light on our cultural contributions and histories, but it’s also a time to reflect on the challenges we still face. For some within our community, intersecting marginalized identities mean that they are disproportionately affected by discrimination and barriers compared to the broader community as a whole. For Indigenous communities, that can mean the erasure of first languages, lack of access to healthcare or inequities in education. For LGBTQ+ people it can result in lower levels of business support and discrimination for queer business owners.

Google.org is proud to support organizations that are tackling these issues head on. We’re providing a total of $500,000 in Google.org grants to three organizations who are focused on intersectionality in the Latino community:

• Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo (CIELO), an Indigenous woman-led organization that works with Indigenous-migrant communities in Los Angeles, CA
• Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño (CBDIO), an Indigenous-led organization supporting the Indigenous immigrant communities from Mexico in California’s Central Valley and Central Coast for almost 30 years
• Hispanic Federation, specifically their Latinx LGBTQ+ Nonprofit Initiative, which aims to build capacity in Latino-led and Latino-serving LGBTQ+ organizations

Continuing our support for Latino culture and cultural institutions

Inclusive spaces can be virtual, too, like the Latino Cultures in the U.S. project on Google Arts & Culture, which we first launched in 2017. The project has grown every year since, and now features more than 60 institutions and over 150 stories. This Hispanic Heritage Month, we added the largest online collection of Puerto Rican arts, with over 900 artworks digitized in high-resolution, thanks to a partnership with Lin-Manuel and Luis Miranda. And to further celebrate Latino culture in the U.S., Google.org has made a $1 million grant to the National Museum of the American Latino, a new museum joining the Smithsonian Institution network in Washington D.C. Latino communities are an integral part of America, and this museum will showcase our contributions for generations to come.

Using our platform to connect Latinos to critical resources

Over the past year, Google.org has also supported a number of Hispanic and Latino nonprofits with more than $500,000 in donated Google Search advertising — helping them reach a broader audience and share vital resources. This includes:

• UnidosUS, the largest Latino advocacy organization in the U.S., which has used Search Ads to amplify culturally-relevant COVID-19 information since the start of the pandemic
• Hispanic Access Foundation, which is using donated advertising to recruit young leaders of color for internship opportunities with organizations like the U.S. National Park Service

When we support those in the margins, we elevate our entire society. I’m proud of the work Google is doing to support Hispanic and Latino communities, especially for those at the intersections. Happy Hispanic Heritage Month to all of the people who make our communities vibrant and beautiful simply by existing.