The search company Google said that Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google would provide any U.S. business with over $100,000 cost of online courses in data analytics, design, and other tech skills for their workers free of charge.
The offer marks a significant expansion of Google’s Career Certificates, a program the company pitched in 2018 to enable people globally to promote their resumes by knowing new tools at their own pace.
According to Google, over 70,000 people in the United States and 205,000 globally have achieved at least one certificate, and 75% receive a benefit like a new job or more elevated pay within six months.
The courses, designed by Google and sold through online education service Coursera Inc (COUR.N), typically cost students about $39 a month and take three to six months to finish.
Google will now cover costs for up to 500 workers at any U.S. business, and it valued the grants at $100,000 because people usually take up to six months to finish.
Coursera Inc. is a U.S.-based enormous open online course provider established in 2012 by Stanford University computer science educators Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera performs with universities and other organizations to submit online courses, certifications, and degrees. In 2021 it was assessed that about 150 universities presented more than 4,000 courses via Coursera.
Coursera was ventured in 2012 by Stanford University Computer lecturers Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng. Ng and Koller started delivering their Stanford courses online in the fall of 2011 and soon after left Stanford to venture into Coursera. The University of Michigan, Princeton, Stanford, and the University of Pennsylvania were the first universities to deliver content on the platform.
Offerings have since grown to include Specializations – collections of courses that build skills in a precise subject and degrees and create workforce development for companies and government organizations.
In 2014 Coursera accepted both the Webby Winner of Websites and Mobile Sites Education 2014 and the People’s Voice Winner of Websites and Mobile Sites Education awards.
Lisa Gevelber, founder of Grow with Google, the company unit overseeing certificates, said course completion rates are higher when people pay out of pocket. However, the new offer was still worthwhile if it could help some businesses gain digital-savvy.
Certificates also are available in I.T. support, project management, e-commerce, and digital marketing. They cover popular software in each field, including Google advertising services.
As of 2017, Coursera offers complete master’s degrees. They first started with a Master’s in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OMIE) from HEC Paris and a Masters of Accounting (MSA) from the University of Illinois but have moved on to offer a Master of Business Administration (iMBA) and Master of Computer Science in Data Science, both from the University of Illinois.
In addition, as part of their MBA programs, some courses are offered separately, which are included in the curriculum of specific MBAs when enrolling in classes such as their digital marketing courses.
IBM, Meta, Google, and other well-known companies, ventured into various courses for professional certificates. It allows students to fill the workforce in multiple sectors, such as data analytics, I.T. support, digital marketing, project management, UX design, and Data Science.
According to Google, their courses are equivalent to 4-year degrees. They also presented 10,000 scholarships. Google and its 20+ associates will accept those certifications as 4-year degree equivalent.