Google Philippines announced last Sept. 28 that it will be awarding 39,000 scholarships to Filipino students and jobseekers for its Google Professional Certificate online courses.
Designed and taught by Google, the Google Professional Certificate courses delivered through Coursera aim to equip the country’s workforce with job-ready skills for high-growth technology fields. They are suitable for jobseekers with no technology related degrees or experience and can be finished in three to six months.
While the certificate courses normally cost $39 per month, Filipinos selected for the scholarships can access the Google Professional Certificate courses for free for up to one year.
The four certificates available under the scholarship are the IT Support, Project Management, Data Analytics, and User Experience Design certificates. Learners may take only one or up to all four certificate courses within the one-year period.
According to the Philippines Statistics Authority, around 2.68 million Filipinos remained jobless in August as the unemployment rate rose to 5.3% in August 2022.
Google Philippines country director Bernadette Nacario emphasized that the Grow with Google initiative is part of the company’s commitment to prepare countries like the Philippines for a rapidly evolving digital world.
“Google hopes to address the digital skills gap and improve the lives of thousands of Filipinos for themselves and their families by providing free Google Career Certificates,” Nacario said.
Google is partnering with Globe, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to distribute the scholarships to deserving Filipinos. Any Filipino 18 years old or above are eligible regardless of their schooling or previous experience.
Globe is Google’s main partner for the initiative and will be leveraging their network to give out 30,000 of the scholarships to Globe customers and partner schools.
Globe chief sustainability and corporate communications officer Yoly Crisanto said: “Bringing Coursera to more Filipinos is a clear example of how we can uplift our young customers with world-class, IT-based trainings to strengthen their digital skill-sets.”
On the other hand, DICT and DTI will be in charge of distributing 5,000 and 4,000 scholarships, respectively.
DICT assistant secretary for upskilling Jeffrey Ian Dy noted: “It’s not just about infrastructure, but it’s also about people structure. And for this, we are really, really very proud to be partners with Google regarding this initiative.”
DTI management services group undersecretary Ireneo Vizmonte remarked: “When Google reached out to us, we were very excited because it was very much in line with the Secretary’s top priority, which was to upgrade, upskill, and upsize not only the [Philippines’] MSMEs, but also the human capital.”
Google Certificate scholar and civil engineering student Shiela Marie Manzano wrapped up the scholarship launch by explaining why she valued the opportunity to learn from Google’s courses.
“We all know that Google is a well-known company locally and globally. Pagnakita nila yung certificate, malaki talaga ‘yung edge ko among other applicants,” Manzano stressed.
