Grow with Google is an initiative that helps to ensure that the opportunities created by technology are available to everyone. The goal is to help people get the right skills to find jobs, advance their careers and grow their businesses through tools and training. To this end, the Google Career Certificates Scholarship program funded by Google was introduced to provide young people with the opportunity to enrol in four professional certificate courses on Coursera. The end goal is to enable young people to earn job-ready skills in high-growth, high-demand career fields such as IT Support, Project Management, Data Analytics, and UX Design.
In partnership with JA Ghana, the CSIR-INSTI Makerspace offers 40 vulnerable and marginalized youth in the Greater Accra region from 18-35, scholarships to earn professional certificates in IT Support, Project Management, Data Analytics, and UX Design within three months.
In addition to the digital skills, beneficiaries will receive socioemotional, entrepreneurship, and work readiness training as well as coaching and mentorship about opportunities, trends, and challenges in the industry by professionals to guide and ensure their preparedness to enter the labour market. Graduates of the program will be assisted to acquire employment apprenticeships or internships, within 6 months of completion.
On 14th June at CSIR-INSTI, the selected participants for the program showed up in their numbers for the launch. It was encouraging to see a lot of female participation as the majority of the participants who showed up were female. Also present was the Director of INSTI, Dr Seth Manteaw, and his team.
Mr. Leslie Joppa, the program lead from JA Ghana took the participants through the various courses, the skills, and potential jobs after successful completion of the program. He led an interactive session with the participants where all their questions and concerns were addresses.
Dr. Paul Danquah, the Principal Investigator at INSTI, also encouraged participants to take and complete the courses, highlighting the importance of professional certificates in the current job market.
JA Ghana is excited about this Google initiative to help young people acquire these global and in-demand skills needed for the Ghanaian job market.
Learn more about the Grow with Google program here.