Google has announced renewed efforts towards helping people without university degrees to prepare for and land jobs in the technology sector. These include expanding its employer consortium of companies that recognize Google Career Certificates and are eager to hire people who have earned them.

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As we reported at the time, Google Grow was launched in 2017 as part of Google's determination to help prepare individuals and businesses for the rapidly digitizing economy. At the same time Sundar Pinchai pledged $1 billion over the next 5 years. Last week Pinchai wrote in a blog post:

As U.S. job growth returns with more people getting vaccinated, we are committed to ensuring that all Americans have the skills they need to benefit from greater economic opportunity. To help, today we’re announcing new efforts, including opening up enrollment for our latest career certificates, expanding our employer consortium, and introducing new tools to improve the job search.

Four Google Career Certificates were launched in September 2019 in partnership with Coursera. They are in:

• IT Support
• Data Analytics
• Project Management
• UX Design

All of these are at beginner level with no prerequisities and are designed to teach you in-demand skills and make you job-ready within six months. 

There's another career certificate in the Coursera/Google portfolio - IT Automation with Python, which we covered when it was launched in January 2020. It builds on the IT Support certificate and consists of six courses and takes approximately 8 months to complete. For the details see Coursera Offers Google IT Automation With Python Professional Certificate.

Once someone has earned one of these certificates their resume can be shared directly with employers who are among the 130+ businesses that are now part of the Google employer consortium.

In the blog post, Sundar Pinchai also announced a  new  Associate Android Developer Certification which prepares learners for entry level jobs in Android development, reminding us:

With 1.3 million jobs open in these fields right now in the U.S., the opportunity is significant.

Pinchai appears to be referring to a new Kotlin version of the Associate Android Developer Certification, the Java version of which was which was originally launched in 2017. To earn this certificate involves passing a performance-based, online, exam in which you will be asked to write and debug code. Candidates also have to submit an exit interview by recording a video, see Associate Android Developer Certification by Google for more details.

Google offers entry-level free training to get you started on a path to this certification. We first reported on Android Basics in Kotlin in July 2020, shortly after its first Unit, Kotlin basics for Android was launched. Currently it has three units having added content on Layouts and Navigation and more units are expected soon.  

There also  is a free Google-authored course Developing Android Apps with Kotlin on Udacity and to go even further towards a career as an Android developer Udacity has a 4-month  Android Kotlin Developer Nanodegree program.  See Introducing The Android Kotlin Developer Nanodegree for more details of this. Udacity provides career services to those on its Nanodegree programs, including resume support, Github portfolio review and LinkedIn profile optimization to help you advance your career and land a high-paying role.

More Information

Career certificates and more ways we're helping job seekers 

Google Career Certificates

Associate Android Developer Certification

Android Basics in Kotlin

Google Career Certificates on Coursera

Android Kotlin Developer Nanodegree on Udacity

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Grow With Google

Coursera Offers Google IT Automation With Python Professional Certificate

Associate Android Developer Certification by Google

Android & Kotlin For Beginners - With Badges

Introducing The Android Kotlin Developer Nanodegree

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