To read the original article, please visit Google Canada Blog.
Author: Julia Blackburn, Chief Executive Officer of NPower Canada
Today’s blog post is guest-authored by Julia Blackburn, Chief Executive Officer of NPower Canada. Google has been working with NPower Canada since 2020, when NPower Canada began offering Google Career Certificates to underserved job-seekers through their free, three-month workforce development program.
Today, Google.org has generously committed $2.5 million towards NPower Canada’s workforce development programs, to help equip 5,000 underserved job-seekers with the technical and employability skills to launch into meaningful careers in tech.
The grant represents a continued evolution of our work with Google, which started three years ago, in July 2020. NPower Canada has always been committed to equipping job-seekers with the most in-demand skills and certifications, and working with Google, a partner who shares this mission through their Grow with Google initiative, allowed us to offer our participants some of the most sought after industry certifications, such as their Google IT Support and Automation with Python Professional Certificates, Google UX Design Certificate, and the Google Project Management Certificate.
We’ve achieved a lot together over the past three years. Since we started working together in 2020, Google has provided a total of $4.5M that has helped us enroll more than 4,000 learners into our core Google scholarship-based programs. This new $2.5M grant will allow us to offer another 5,000 needs-based scholarships between now and 2025. Time and time again, I hear from our graduates that having Google certifications on their resume has helped them to be competitive in their job search:
“A recruiter once told me during a job interview that, although I didn’t have work experience in the IT field, it was great seeing the Google certification on my resume,” said Ravina Lad, who graduated from our Junior IT Analyst program with a Google IT Support Professional Certificate in 2020. When Ravina first graduated from the program, she freelanced as a UX/UI designer before committing to a full time position with Communitech as a Frontend Developer. Today, she is employed as a Quality Assurance Engineer at TD.
Google’s support has also been integral to NPower Canada’s expansion in Quebec and the delivery of our Junior IT Analyst program in French. By translating their Google Career Certificates, NPower Canada was able to support Quebec’s francophone and anglophone job-seekers. Recently, we got together at Google’s Montreal offices to celebrate the impact that we have achieved together in the province. Joseph Honore Wamba, a recent graduate and panelist at the event, shared:
“NPower Canada opened the door to tech and towards a first employment in the field. I think with a few professional experiences in tech, combined with additional certifications I can gain, I will definitely be able to achieve my dream job in the next ten years.”
Stories like Ravina and Joseph’s, which demonstrate the real-life impact of NPower Canada’s partnership with Google, are what motivate me to continue growing our reach and multiplying our organization’s impact through meaningful, cross-sector partnerships. As I’ve often said, it takes a village to achieve our mission, and I am so grateful that Google is here to support. I am excited to continue to work with Google to equip Canada’s most vulnerable job-seekers with the most in-demand tech skills and certifications that lead to successful and enriching careers.
