People’s sense of purpose and optimism is what brought him to America nearly 30 years ago, says India-born executive
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced a new $100 million Google Career Certificates Fund to prepare people 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,” Indian American CEO of Google and its parent Alphabet said at an event Thursday. “This investment in America’s future has the potential to drive $1 billion in wage gains.”
“It’s all designed around student success,” he said at the event with US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Alejandra Castillo and the CEOs of Social Finance, Merit America and Year Up.
Read: Sundar Pichai recommends working 3 days from office and 2 days remotely (October 19, 2021)
Over 70,000 Americans have now completed these certificates, Pichai noted. “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.”
“This fund is a new kind of financing model,” he said with the search giant investing Google capital and Google.org grants and providing its 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.
Google will also connect students to an employer consortium of more than 150 companies who are looking to hire workers with these skills.
Students 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, Pichai said. 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,” Pichai said.
“I’m excited to see all the ways this could be transformative for people, their families and their communities,” he said expressing a desire 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,” Pichai said “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,” recalled the Chennai, India-born IIT Kharagpur graduate. “And it’s what drew me to Google and its mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
Read: Google launches $100m careers fund, targets $1bn impact through higher wages (18th February 2022)
Describing Google as a company of technology optimists, Pichai said, “We believe in what people can do with technology to improve their lives and the lives of others.”
“That’s what inspired us to launch Grow with Google in 2017, to help all Americans access training to grow their skills, careers and businesses,” he said.
Over the last five years joining hands with public-sector institutions and nonprofit partners, Google has helped train eight million Americans in all 50 states through its digital skills program, Pichai said.