Google has pledged to commit $1 billion in grants to its new philanthropic program that is intended to help develop professional skills of job seekers and prepare them for future jobs in the field of technology. Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive officer, announced the new program called “Grow With Google” on Thursday in Pittsburgh with the goal to provide training services to those looking for a job as well as web development solutions to business organizations seeking to boost their online presence.
As part of the program, the grants will be donated to non-profit organizations in the fields of education and professional training through the Mountain View, California-based search giant’s charitable arm Google.org over the next half a decade. Additionally, volunteer employees from Google will also contribute a total of one million hours to those organizations that help address global issues using technology. More specifically, Grow With Google aims to tackle three areas where the search giant sees the need to take actions: education, economic opportunity, and inclusion. One of the steps Google plans to take as part of the $1 billion commitment is to support nonprofits that create digital learning platforms for students. The initiative is quite similar in nature to the “Google for Nigeria” program launched in July in a broader effort to help Africans acquire Internet and computer skills in order to help improve their opportunity to land a job in the future. The previously launched program is intended to equip some 10 million Africans with digital skills and train 100,000 software developers in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria.
Google also seeks to address the changing nature of work by funding organizations that help train individuals with new skills and match job seekers with the right jobs for them using technology. Google noted that one of its initial grantees, Goodwill, which recently received $10 million in grants along with 1,000 Google volunteers, is set to unveil its platform for helping Americans grow their digital skills in the near future. Google will also help fund organizations that work to help create a fairer world through its continued support for initiatives that aim to provide equal access to opportunity for everyone.