Google to commit to White House job training initiative for Americans

Google is committing to a White House initiative designed to get private companies to expand job training for American workers. CEO Sundar Pichai was making the announcement on Thursday during an appearance with White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump at El Centro community college in downtown Dallas. Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump’s daughter, oversees the administration’s worker training efforts.

Google's commitment to the White House

Google said that it’s also expanding a program that is developed to train people who don’t have experience or a college degree for entry-level job information technology support in less than six months. “At Google, our goal is to make sure that the opportunities created by technology are truly available to everyone,” Pichai planned to say, according to prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press.

“Today I am proud to join more than 350 American businesses in signing The Pledge to America’s Workers. This will take Google’s commitment even further by creating 250,000 new training opportunities for American workers over the next five years,” Pichai said.

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“We know that in order to be competitive in this world, we need to invest in America’s greatest asset, our workers, and help fill the openings in the IT field,” Ivanka Trump says in prepared remarks. “Google’s pledge to train 250,000 Americans for the technology jobs of tomorrow helps us achieve our mission,” she said.

Last year, President Trump created the National Council for the American Worker and the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, the latter made up of business, education and other leaders asked to make recommendations to the council on a national workforce strategy. The president also called on U.S. businesses to commit to expanding education and skills-training programs by signing the pledge.

To date, more than 350 companies have committed to train and retrain more than 14 million students and workers since Trump introduced the pledge in July 2018. The overall goal is to increase the number of skilled workers at a time when many businesses are struggling to find qualified help. More than 7 million job openings exist in the U.S., according to a September report from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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A pledge by the tech giant

Google initially signed the pledge through the Internet Association, which lobbies on behalf of the industry. But the tech giant said it decided to strengthen its commitment after developing more programs. One such program is the IT Support Professional Certificate. Google is expanding the online course to students enrolled in 100 community colleges — more than triple the current number — in 16 select states by the end of 2020 through a $3.5 million grant from JFF, a nonprofit organisation that promotes economic advancement.

The course was released in January 2018 to 30 community colleges in California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas, Colorado, and Wisconsin. The expansion will place the program in schools in Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, Virginia, and West Virginia. While at the Dallas school, Trump and Pichai will solicit feedback from students who have completed the IT support program.

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