Partnership with Google Offers Scholarships for Arizona’s Job Seekers

On January 18, 2023, the first group of ambitious job seekers graduated from the new Grow with Google Career Certificate Scholarship Program, opening the doors to several in-demand fields. In August 2022, the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) and [email protected] announced the launch of the Google Program to provide job seekers with no-cost access to scholarships to expand their professional expertise by earning Google certifications. The Program offers job seekers the opportunity to improve their employability by becoming Google-certified in five growing fields, including Digital Marketing & E-commerce, IT, Data Analytics, Project Management, and UX Design.

Marcia Skousen decided to participate in the program to increase her chances of finding a career. “I thought adding to my skills would be a good use of my free time,” explained Marcia. She was pleased with the pace of the program and said, “the instructions and lessons were easy to follow for beginners. The course modules are well-organized and created in a way that you can stop and start lessons as your schedule allows.”

Other graduates such as Google IT Support certification holder, Ross Morton, were impressed with the breadth of study the training covered. “The Google IT Support course covers the same ground as A+ [an industry-standard certification for individuals in the IT field] and adds a lot on top of it,” explained Ross. “It goes into networking, sysadmin, job seeking, cyber security, virtualization, and Linux much further, whereas A+ barely scratches the surface.”

A theme among the graduates was an eagerness to continue learning and plans to add additional Google certifications to their workforce tool belt. But before returning to their studies, the group was invited to employment readiness training and a virtual job fair that will include immediate job offers for Grow with Google graduates.

DES Grow with Google project lead, Latonia Benjamin, was thrilled for the first group of graduates and is excited to continue to extend this opportunity to more of Arizona’s job seekers. "It's been my distinct privilege to support Arizonans in the unique way that Grow With Google allows,” said Latonia, who is currently overseeing the progress of 391 Grow with Google learners in Arizona.

If you’re interested in joining hundreds of others as they learn new skills and increase their employability, learn more or to register to become a Grow with Google learner by visiting [email protected]’s Grow with Google Career Certificate Scholarship Program website.