Google CEO announced $100 mn fund to upskill tech workforce

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, on Thursday, announced a new $100 million Google Career Certificates Fund to develop a skilled workforce for “high-paying, high-growth jobs in fields like data analytics, IT support, project management and user experience design.”

“The goal is to enable Social Finance to reach more than 20,000 American workers. This investment in America’s future has the potential to drive $1 billion in wage gains,” Pichai said.

Pichai announced the fund at an event with U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, Alejandra Castillo and the CEOs of Social Finance, Merit America and Year Up.

“They are available to anyone, no college degree required. Seventy-five percent of graduates report seeing a positive impact on their career within six months, including a raise or a new job,” Pichai said.

Google wants to help more people access these Certificates, especially in underserved communities.

“One of the best parts of my job is visiting the communities where Google operates. These visits remind me that America is full of people who want to work hard and contribute to their communities. That sense of purpose and optimism is what brought me to America nearly 30 years ago. And it’s what drew me to Google and its mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

We’ll invest Google capital and Google.org grants and provide our Career Certificate program. Social Finance will provide funding to nonprofit partners like Merit America and Year Up, who in turn will provide services like career coaching, living stipends and job placement support. And we’ll connect students to an employer consortium of more than 150 companies who are looking to hire workers with these skills.

It’s all designed around student success. They will receive all of this at no upfront cost. And will only pay it back once they find a job earning at least $40,000 a year. Social Finance will then redistribute those repayments to future learners, making this model more sustainable.

It’s another promising example of how the entire ecosystem — from private companies to nonprofits — can work together to help more Americans access economic opportunities,” he concluded.

CT Bureau