Today, Southern Communities Initiative (SCI) announced a collaboration with Google to offer the company’s digital skills programming, including the Google Career Certificates, across four of SCI’s six Southern target cities: New Orleans, LA; Birmingham, AL; Houston, TX; and Memphis, TN. This partnership will provide career certificates and industry connections for those wishing to enter evolving technical industries.
The Google Career Certificates prepare participants for careers in the rapidly growing fields of cybersecurity, digital marketing, IT support, data analytics and more. Each certificate field has a $76,000+ median salary. The certificates can be completed affordably online in under six months of part-time study—with no degree or experience required. The program also provides career resources to program participants, including resume templates, coaching from Career Circle and interview practice with Interview Warmup.
“We have to prepare people in our communities for careers in emerging technologies if we are ever going to close the skills gap and build wealth,” said Mambu Sherman, Executive Director of Southern Communities Initiative. “Google has consistently lived up to its commitment to racial justice and ensuring equitable educational and career opportunities for underserved communities. We are proud to partner with them to bring their capacity to these four Southern communities, home to a large proportion of Black Americans, so that we accelerate career opportunities and growth.”
Already, 200,000 people have graduated from the Google Career Certificates program in the U.S., and over 70% of them report a positive career impact, including a new job, raise or promotion, within six months of graduation. SCI’s local community lead in New Orleans has already incorporated the certificates into their workforce development efforts.
“We have had a wonderful experience facilitating the use of Grow with Google in New Orleans. The lessons that it provides have helped countless Urban League clients advance their efforts to start and scale viable business enterprises that can create career opportunities for the most viable and underserved,” said Judy Reese Morse, president and CEO of Urban League of Louisiana. “Programs like this are becoming increasingly important to prepare our communities to benefit from the ongoing digital and technical transformation.”
To connect graduates directly to jobs, the Google Career Certificates program includes an employer consortium of over 150 companies—including Dell, Deloitte, Google, T-Mobile, Walmart, and Wells Fargo—that hire in the certificate fields.
The four participating SCI cities will leverage the program to complement their existing workforce and education development initiatives. Certificates are developed and taught by Googlers with decades of experience in these fields, and employers give input to the content to ensure the certificates teach the most critical skills. Users must pass 100+ assessments, and also gain hands-on experience so learners have the necessary skills to be successful on the job.
“Google believes the opportunities created by technology should truly be available to everyone,” said Lisa Gevelber, Founder, Grow with Google. “We’re proud to support the Southern Communities Initiative to help more Black workers across the country learn digital skills and enroll in the Google Career Certificates program to prepare for in-demand, well-paying jobs.”
About Southern Communities Initiative (SCI)
The Southern Communities Initiative (SCI) was launched in April 2021 by Vista Equity Partners, Boston Consulting Group, and PayPal, to accelerate the deployment of corporate resources into the six southern communities that are home to more than 50% of all African Americans: Atlanta, GA; Birmingham, AL; Charlotte, NC; Houston, TX, Memphis, TN; and New Orleans, LA. SCI is an open-source blueprint for advancing racial equity that compiles ideas from local organizations that are embedded within their communities, which are then refined by leading national experts on banking, broadband, education, and other pressing needs. These ideas are then presented as available actions that corporations can take to address inequities, in ways that are locally sustainable and can quickly generate impact across traditional siloes.
The Southern Communities Initiative’s priorities include Wealth Creation – supporting Black-owned business growth and access to capital by helping fund and modernize community development financial institutions (CDFIs); MBE/Supplier Diversity – increasing the volume and value of Black-owned businesses; Education/HBCU Workforce – working with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to increase pathways to employment and training for students; and Digital Access – supporting digital access by increasing the accessibility, affordability and adoption of high-speed internet in communities.
About Grow with Google
Grow with Google was started in 2017 to help Americans grow their skills, careers, and businesses. It provides training, tools, and expertise to help small business owners, veterans and military families, jobseekers and students, educators, startups, and developers. Since Grow with Google’s inception, it has helped more than 10 million Americans develop new skills. Grow with Google has a network of more than 9,000 partner organizations like libraries, schools, small business development centers, chambers of commerce, and nonprofits to help people coast-to-coast.
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