In order to help prospective employees bridge skills gaps in the IT field, Google is offering access to its IT training program, which was previously only open to Google employees, Entrepreneur reports. Google’s IT Support Professional Certificate program is the first to offer subsidized external training.
The tech giant is able to do this through a partnership with the online course company Coursera. “The program will involve 64 hours of video lessons as well as labs and evaluations, and it will teach IT basics such as troubleshooting, customer service, networking, operating systems, system administration, automation and security,” Entrepreneur says. “It will take about eight months to complete if a student spends eight to 10 hours a week on the program,” although students can work at their own pace.
What decision makers should know:
According to Entrepreneur, even though it may seem counterintuitive for Google to provide online classes for people who don’t have an IT background or four-year degree, people who might never work for them, or people who might work for competitors, the company hopes to still benefit from its education offering. In Google’s case, Entrepreneur says that about 10,000 U.S. residents receive scholarships from the company to complete the program, and Google anticipates that it will be able to hire some of those people down the road.
Training offerings, such as the ones Google is offering, “are becoming a trendy recruiting tactic among companies…in a world where skills become outdated quickly and many employers don’t foster internal learning opportunities,” Entrepreneur reports. As a result, Google seems to be keeping pace with prospective employees’ needs. It also seems to be making strides in investing in the IT world as a whole, by giving an education to those who are interested in the field. Decision makers looking to go down a similar path might consider Google’s tactics, and investigate online learning programs that would meet their own employees’ – and prospective employees’ – needs.
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