This morning, Google Canada announced a $2 million commitment to help train Canadian job seekers for new careers in technology.
The initiative includes a three-year Google.org grant to NPower Canada to deliver Google Certificate programs and deploy 5,000 need-based scholarships to access the program. The goal is to train job seekers with new skills in under six months.
Andrew Reddin, chief development officer at NPower Canada, said the organization began offering Google’s IT Support Certificate last year. Eighty-three per cent of youth who graduated in September 2020 are employed or in a new education post completion of the program.
“These programs are filling a demand in the job market; according to Glassdoor, the fields supported by the Google Career Certificates currently have more than 22,000 job openings across the country today. The support from Google provides more opportunities for young adults to start their careers and participate in Canada’s digital economy,” he said in a May 17 news release.
According to Statistics Canada, unemployment rates over the past year among visible minority groups and youth ages 15-24 remain higher than that of Canadians who are not Indigenous, a youth or a visible minority, whose unemployment rate fell 0.5 percentage points to 7.5 per cent.
“To help job seekers that have been hit the hardest by the pandemic, we need to invest in skills training in jobs with demonstrable demand,” said Sabrina Geremia, vice-president and country director, Google Canada. “Google Career Certificates build an onramp to great jobs with no degree or experience required, which helps break down barriers and create opportunities for underserved groups entering the tech workforce.”
Outside of NPower Canada’s programming, the new certificates are delivered through Coursera’s online learning platform and are available in English, with select programs available in French starting in 2022.
Google Canada says it’s also introducing a Google Career Certificate Employer Consortium for scholarship graduates. The Employer Consortium is a group of employers, including KPMG, TELUS, Google and Loblaw, who will consider graduates of NPower Canada’s Google Career Certificate programs for eligible jobs.
Employers interested in connecting with skilled candidates and growing their talent pipeline can join the Google Career Certificate Employer Consortium by visiting this page. More information about the program can also be found on NPower’s website.