Google announces “Opportunity for everyone” with $1 billion grant initiative

The tech giant also donates $10 millions to Goodwill

On October 12, Sundar Pichai,CEO of Google announced during an address in Pittsburgh, PA, three Googgle initiatives that expand on their efforts to create more opportunity for everyone and a $10 million donation to Goodwill.

The initiatives are: Grow with Google, a new initiative to help Americans with the skills they need to get a job or grow their business, $1 billion in Google.org grants over five years to nonprofits around the world, and 1 million hours that Googlers can volunteer to nonprofits around the world.

At Google, our mission is to make sure that information serves everyone, not just a few. A child in a school here in Pittsburgh can access the same information on Google as a professor at Carnegie Mellon. In the end, the Internet is a powerful equalizer, capable of propelling new ideas and people forward. – Sundar Pichai,CEO, Google.

Grow with Google, a new initiative to help Americans with the skills they need to get a job or grow their business. Globally, Google will provide $1 billion in grants over the next five years to nonprofits working on three key areas to boost opportunity. Finally, Googlers can volunteer 1 million hours to help these front-line organizations.

Google has launched an online hub—google.com/grow—where job seekers, teachers, local business owners, and developers can get significant training and professional certificates.

So if you’re looking to learn or teach the skills that employers value, look up Applied Digital Skills. Google has been workshopping this with 27,000 students at middle and high schools. It teaches you the basics of working with tech in the modern world: from spreadsheets to email, and also launching a G Suite certification that will allow people to prove their proficiency in essential workplace tools.

For people who want to get closer to tech, Google has also putting together programs to make IT far more accessible as a career. Upcoming in January 2018, a first-of-its-kind program in IT support that we developed on Coursera. The IT Support Professional Certificate includes hands-on labs to take learners to job readiness in eight to 12 months. The company will sponsor 2,600 full scholarships through non-profit organizations; 100 of them will go to an organization in Pittsburgh, Partner4Work. To ensure these courses directly translate into jobs, it is connecting graduates with potential employers including Bank of America, L’Oreal, PNC Bank, and, of course, Google.

Google Developer Scholarship Challenge, a rigorous training program for people who want to become developers, free of charge. This is a partnership with Udacity to offer 50,000 scholarship opportunities for people who want to build things on the web and Android.

Google recognizes that as great as connecting online is, nothing replaces the face-to-face connection and with that in mind is launching Grow with Google tour. Googlers will team up with libraries and community organizations across the country to host these events. It will provide career advice and training for people and businesses, including helping small businesses get online.

Finally, Google is giving $10 million to Goodwill.

This is Google’s largest donation so far to a single organization.

Goodwill’s mission to train

We’re announcing $10 million in support of Goodwill—the largest grant Google.org has ever given to a single organization. Goodwill has phenomenal reach. Over 80 percent of Americans live within 10 miles of its centers. And it has a long record of helping people who despaired of ever getting work again. With our support, it will be able to offer 1.2 million people digital skills and career opportunities in all 156 Goodwills across every state over the next three years.

Keeping in mind that more than 63 million urban Americans don’t have access to or can’t afford broadband internet, and that all of these Google classes require an internet connection, whether these efforts will translate into growing jobs opportunities for communities who haven’t been able to take advantage of the digital revolution, remains to be seen.

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