Tag Archives: google.org

AI4ALL participants tell all—summer camps get girls involved in AI and tech

AI4ALL, a nonprofit working to increase diversity and inclusion in artificial intelligence, believes that all students should have the opportunity to learn about AI and explore its applications. We share the same belief, and have gotten more kids involved in computer science and technology by donating to organizations like Code.org, building programs like Made with Code and CS First, and most recently helping AI4ALL expand learning resources for underrepresented youth. With a $1 million grant from Google.org, AI4ALL can scale their nationwide summer camps that spark student interest in AI and help them build foundational technical skills. The Google.org grant will also create a new digital curriculum that will introduce students to fundamental AI concepts.

To learn more about AI4ALL’s impact, we caught up with Tess Posner, CEO of AI4ALL, as well as two program alums: Ananya Karthik, who recently led an AI and art workshop in Oakland for Bay Area middle and high school girls, and 15-year old Ekanem Okeke, who participated in the AI4ALL Stanford camp this summer. Hear from Tess and Ananya in this video, and read on for an interview with Ekanem.

Supporting diversity and inclusion in AI with AI4ALL
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Here's Ekanem at the AI4ALL Stanford camp

Ekanem Okeke participated in the AI4ALL Stanford camp this summer. We chatted with her about her experience:

Tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
My name is Ekanem Okeke. I am 15 years old. I was born in Ottawa, Canada, but for the past three years I’ve been living in Michigan with my family. I have two sisters and one brother. Having lived in Canada for the majority of my life so far, I am fluent in French, but I would really love to learn Korean and Japanese. I also enjoy reading, drawing, playing soccer and basketball, and watching anime. Lastly, I am fascinated with astronomy, biology and science in general.

What was your experience with computer science and AI before camp?
Prior to attending AI4ALL, I hadn’t seriously coded. I’d heard of the development of autonomous cars using AI, but other than that, I didn’t know all that much of the applications of AI. Of course, I was curious about AI and programming before attending AI4ALL, but I hadn’t acted on that curiosity yet. Nevertheless, I am in a very CS-heavy family as both my parents are engineers and my sister is also on her way to becoming one.

What was your favorite part of camp and who were your fellow participants?
I don’t think that I could pick a favorite! I really enjoyed listening to guest speakers, like Professor Jeanette Bohg’s talk comparing computer vision to human vision. Prof. Dan Jurafsky's talk on Natural Language Processing (NLP) was also very fascinating as he discussed using NLP to evaluate police bias. Along with these talks, we watched technical demonstrations and even managed to fit in field trips to Google’s headquarters and the beach!

My fellow participants were really cool and helpful—bonding with them was a high point of the experience. We also had a pretty diverse class, with people from nine states and nine different countries. I even met a fellow Canadian!

What did you think about your field trip to Google?
I definitely think that the most enriching part of the whole experience was the panel we attended at Google. I found that all the panelists had something interesting that they were working on and something unique about their history with AI. It displayed the interdisciplinary nature of AI, as the panelists had very different jobs that all still related to AI, such as health research with machine learning.

What was the subject of your team project and what did you learn while working on it?
While at camp, I was in the robotics group that focused on autonomous vehicles. In our group, we attempted to model the navigation system that would be implemented in an autonomous vehicle. To accomplish this, we used proportional–integral–derivative controller (PIDs) and Dijkstra’s algorithm. The PID controllers worked to enable our robots to follow the lines on our map, while Dijkstra’s algorithm enabled the robots to plan efficient routes. By combining these two algorithms, the robots were able to navigate themselves from one destination to the next.

Leaving camp, has your perspective on AI changed? How?
I’ve learned how AI can solve problems. Before camp, I saw AI as somewhat of a super tool, a technology that could be used to change the world. However, I didn’t really understand what AI actually does. After the camp, I’ve come to understand AI in a more realistic sense. I now understand how to utilize AI as an actual concrete piece of technology.

What excites you the most about AI?
I think the most exciting thing about AI is that it is very much a blank canvas. The broad scope of how interdisciplinary AI is makes it such an interesting and curious field. Although AI is not some kind of all-powerful tool, it is a new technology that can improve one’s daily life. AI’s usefulness is really just limited to our own imagination, and there’s many more possibilities available beyond an autonomous car.

As you look to the future (no pressure!), do you have a sense for what you might be interested in pursuing?
Through this program, I was exposed to many things, which allowed me to picture my own future in any career. I’ve really come to understand that there are a lot of amazing specialized careers that I haven’t heard of before. Attending AI4ALL really encouraged me to follow my passions and turn my passions into a career. As a result, I feel like it would be a waste for me to decide what I want to do right now when there’s so much out there and so much to come.

Lifelong learning for everyone: What we’ve learned from our European social innovation partners

The skills needed in today's workplace are changing fast. A recent report from McKinsey forecasts that the demand for technological, cognitive, creative and interpersonal skills will accelerate by 2030.

Despite technology offering more learning options than ever before, we haven’t yet figured out a way that this can truly benefit everyone. Take, for example, the early enthusiasm for bringing university content online to democratize higher education—and the sobering reality that these online courses are overwhelmingly used by people who already have a higher education. We learned from a recent IPPR report that it is vital for digital skills programs to address a diverse audience and provide skills for the future as well as skills for immediate use. And as the labor market transforms, it's clear we need a more flexible model for facilitating reskilling and lifelong learning for both current and future workers.

So how can we make sure that technology supports lifelong learning for those who need it most? About a year ago, we launched the Google.org Work Initiative, a $50 million fund to support social innovators tackling this question. In addition, since 2015 our Grow with Google programs have been equipping people with the digital skills they need to succeed in the digital economy. What we’ve learned from our Google.org and Grow with Google collaboration with European partners and social entrepreneurs is that making lifelong learning a success requires four tactics: working with organizations who are on the frontline of serving the most disadvantaged, developing clearer signals about the pay-off of engaging in learning new skills, using technology to drive incentives to persevere throughout the learning experience, and developing better ways to signal skills to employers.  

Technology can make learning more accessible

First and foremost, learning must continue to become more accessible. The biggest opportunities for people to upgrade their skills are at work, but the options to retrain are few for those without a workplace. According to research from the European Commission, only 9 percent of people who are out of work have access to upskilling opportunities, compared to almost one in two people on permanent contracts.


To tackle this, public institutions and nonprofits must integrate skill-building opportunities into their programs. Google.org grantee Bayes Impact, a tech nonprofit in France, is an example of this approach in action. Bayes's machine learning-powered search assistant recommends training resources and learning opportunities for people who are out of work. With an unemployment rate of nearly 10 percent in France, Bayes helps millions of job seekers fill their skill gaps through smart technology and a partnership with the country's national unemployment agency.


The pay-off of learning needs to be clear

We know that time and financial investment are key considerations when people think about engaging with new learning opportunities. This means that the pay-off must be clear for learners from the outset. If people don't feel like training will lead them to a better life, there's little chance that they'll take advantage.

A practical way to address this is by helping learners clearly identify the benefits of engaging in a particular course at the beginning of their journey. OpenClassrooms, one of Europe's leading providers of vocational education online and another organization we’re supporting, does this by promising to reimburse course fees if learners haven't found a job six months after completing their certificate. They've also partnered with European government agencies to get official accreditation for several of their courses, further ensuring that the value of a commitment to learning is clear.

Targeting completion is key

The most effective learning experiences are those built with completion in mind. A couple of years ago, the online learning platform Coursera shared that only 4 percent of its users completed the course and earned a credential. When we built the Google IT Professional Support certificate—a Grow with Google program that enables anyone to become an IT support specialist in eight to 12 months without a college degree—we thought carefully about how to ensure as many people as possible complete a course.

One thing we found to be useful is to support blended learning experiences, where online learning is complemented by in-person coaching and meetings with other students. To achieve this, we've partnered with nonprofit organizations to bring an additional layer of support for students to the Google IT Support Professional Certificate. In Germany, we've piloted this approach with Kiron, a nonprofit that is supporting refugees to continue their education and provide access to employment opportunities.

We’ve also been experimenting with using machine learning to identify when students might be in need of support to help them keep going with a course. For example, we’ve rolled out machine learning prompts that show up at key moments as a means to motivate learners.

Capabilities must be expressed in new ways

The final piece of the puzzle is to enable people to showcase their abilities in a format that's convincing to employers. French social enterprise Chance, another one of our grantees, uses a semi-automated system to match companies with candidates who have the capabilities they require but don’t necessarily have access to the professional networks who can help their resume stand out of the pile, or don’t know what employers are looking for and therefore don’t know how to express their own abilities. Backed by AI, projects like these enable a wider pool of job seekers to find the right opportunities for their skill set.

The labor market will continue to evolve, and technology can ensure we keep pace with the growing demands of the future workplace. As our European partners show, it's possible to improve the access, design and experience of learning new skills—putting lifelong learning for everyone firmly within our grasp.

#ThisisFamily: how we’re celebrating Pride

It’s the middle of the middle month of a choppy year and I’m thinking about how we stay steady. I’m thinking about ballasts, the heavy things—weighty, substantive—employed in ships to lend balance. My ballast is my family, and I’m lucky enough to have a few. There’s the family of my blood, those mad geniuses who share my last name; the family of my friends, wild spirits exploring the limits of what’s possible; and, last but not least, the family I walked into when I came to Google.

This Pride, Google and Google’s LGBTQ+ community are celebrating families big and small, chosen or inherited, as part of #ThisIsFamily. We encourage you to post on social media about the people who make up your family (no matter how you define it) and to donate to nonprofits like PFLAG, It Gets Better and GLAAD. Google.org has pledged to match up to $100,000 in total in donations to these three organizations during the month of June.

That’s not the only way we’re celebrating Pride. In typical Google fashion, we’re helping you connect with the world around you (and having a bit of fun) across our products:

  • In Google Maps, this year's parade routes are paved with rainbows.
  • You'll find rainbow "easter eggs" scattered through Google Search and G Suite, and you can join the fun from your desktop by switching your Gmail to a Pride theme for the month of June.
  • Google Play Newsstand has a special feature page for Pride-related coverage.
  • On YouTube, we're celebrating the LGBTQ+ creators who are #ProudToCreate a better future with their imagination, creativity, talent, and truth through our YouTube Spotlight Channel, Twitter, and Instagram.
  • We continue to help businesses declare their establishments "LGBTQ+ Friendly" or "Transgender Safe Space" on their business listings in Google Maps and Google Search.
  • One year on from our initial donation to the LGBT Center of New York in collaboration with the National Parks Foundation, Google.org is contributing another $500,000 (for a total of $1.5 Million) to the Center to help with the digitization of LGBTQ+ history. The project is called Stonewall Forever, and we need your help to find, preserve, and share the untold stories of LGBTQ+ history.
  • Google Arts & Culture has a dedicated Pride collection celebrating LGBTQ+ history, with 20 exhibits and over 2,700 artifacts, part of which comes from the Stonewall Forever project. 

Ballasts, like families, help us stay steady amidst commotion. Paradoxically, maybe, these heavy things also lift us up.

Celebrating Pride, from our families to yours.

#ThisisFamily: how we’re celebrating Pride

It’s the middle of the middle month of a choppy year and I’m thinking about how we stay steady. I’m thinking about ballasts, the heavy things—weighty, substantive—employed in ships to lend balance. My ballast is my family, and I’m lucky enough to have a few. There’s the family of my blood, those mad geniuses who share my last name; the family of my friends, wild spirits exploring the limits of what’s possible; and, last but not least, the family I walked into when I came to Google.

This Pride, Google and Google’s LGBTQ+ community are celebrating families big and small, chosen or inherited, as part of #ThisIsFamily. We encourage you to post on social media about the people who make up your family (no matter how you define it) and to donate to nonprofits like PFLAG, It Gets Better and GLAAD. Google.org has pledged to match up to $100,000 in total in donations to these three organizations during the month of June.

That’s not the only way we’re celebrating Pride. In typical Google fashion, we’re helping you connect with the world around you (and having a bit of fun) across our products:

  • In Google Maps, this year's parade routes are paved with rainbows.
  • You'll find rainbow "easter eggs" scattered through Google Search and G Suite, and you can join the fun from your desktop by switching your Gmail to a Pride theme for the month of June.
  • Google Play Newsstand has a special feature page for Pride-related coverage.
  • On YouTube, we're celebrating the LGBTQ+ creators who are #ProudToCreate a better future with their imagination, creativity, talent, and truth through our YouTube Spotlight Channel, Twitter, and Instagram.
  • We continue to help businesses declare their establishments "LGBTQ+ Friendly" or "Transgender Safe Space" on their business listings in Google Maps and Google Search.
  • One year on from our initial donation to the LGBT Center of New York in collaboration with the National Parks Foundation, Google.org is contributing another $500,000 (for a total of $1.5 Million) to the Center to help with the digitization of LGBTQ+ history. The project is called Stonewall Forever, and we need your help to find, preserve, and share the untold stories of LGBTQ+ history.
  • Google Arts & Culture has a dedicated Pride collection celebrating LGBTQ+ history, with 20 exhibits and over 2,700 artifacts, part of which comes from the Stonewall Forever project. 

Ballasts, like families, help us stay steady amidst commotion. Paradoxically, maybe, these heavy things also lift us up.

Celebrating Pride, from our families to yours.

Source: Google LatLong


#ThisisFamily: how we’re celebrating Pride

It’s the middle of the middle month of a choppy year and I’m thinking about how we stay steady. I’m thinking about ballasts, the heavy things—weighty, substantive—employed in ships to lend balance. My ballast is my family, and I’m lucky enough to have a few. There’s the family of my blood, those mad geniuses who share my last name; the family of my friends, wild spirits exploring the limits of what’s possible; and, last but not least, the family I walked into when I came to Google.

This Pride, Google and Google’s LGBTQ+ community are celebrating families big and small, chosen or inherited, as part of #ThisIsFamily. We encourage you to post on social media about the people who make up your family (no matter how you define it) and to donate to nonprofits like PFLAG, It Gets Better and GLAAD. Google.org has pledged to match up to $100,000 in total in donations to these three organizations during the month of June.

That’s not the only way we’re celebrating Pride. In typical Google fashion, we’re helping you connect with the world around you (and having a bit of fun) across our products:

  • In Google Maps, this year's parade routes are paved with rainbows.
  • You'll find rainbow "easter eggs" scattered through Google Search and G Suite, and you can join the fun from your desktop by switching your Gmail to a Pride theme for the month of June.
  • Google Play Newsstand has a special feature page for Pride-related coverage.
  • On YouTube, we're celebrating the LGBTQ+ creators who are #ProudToCreate a better future with their imagination, creativity, talent, and truth through our YouTube Spotlight Channel, Twitter, and Instagram.
  • We continue to help businesses declare their establishments "LGBTQ+ Friendly" or "Transgender Safe Space" on their business listings in Google Maps and Google Search.
  • One year on from our initial donation to the LGBT Center of New York in collaboration with the National Parks Foundation, Google.org is contributing another $500,000 (for a total of $1.5 Million) to the Center to help with the digitization of LGBTQ+ history. The project is called Stonewall Forever, and we need your help to find, preserve, and share the untold stories of LGBTQ+ history.
  • Google Arts & Culture has a dedicated Pride collection celebrating LGBTQ+ history, with 20 exhibits and over 2,700 artifacts, part of which comes from the Stonewall Forever project. 

Ballasts, like families, help us stay steady amidst commotion. Paradoxically, maybe, these heavy things also lift us up.

Celebrating Pride, from our families to yours.

Source: Gmail Blog


#ThisisFamily: how we’re celebrating Pride

It’s the middle of the middle month of a choppy year and I’m thinking about how we stay steady. I’m thinking about ballasts, the heavy things—weighty, substantive—employed in ships to lend balance. My ballast is my family, and I’m lucky enough to have a few. There’s the family of my blood, those mad geniuses who share my last name; the family of my friends, wild spirits exploring the limits of what’s possible; and, last but not least, the family I walked into when I came to Google.

This Pride, Google and Google’s LGBTQ+ community are celebrating families big and small, chosen or inherited, as part of #ThisIsFamily. We encourage you to post on social media about the people who make up your family (no matter how you define it) and to donate to nonprofits like PFLAG, It Gets Better and GLAAD. Google.org has pledged to match up to $100,000 in total in donations to these three organizations during the month of June.

That’s not the only way we’re celebrating Pride. In typical Google fashion, we’re helping you connect with the world around you (and having a bit of fun) across our products:

  • In Google Maps, this year's parade routes are paved with rainbows.
  • You'll find rainbow "easter eggs" scattered through Google Search and G Suite, and you can join the fun from your desktop by switching your Gmail to a Pride theme for the month of June.
  • Google Play Newsstand has a special feature page for Pride-related coverage.
  • On YouTube, we're celebrating the LGBTQ+ creators who are #ProudToCreate a better future with their imagination, creativity, talent, and truth through our YouTube Spotlight Channel, Twitter, and Instagram.
  • We continue to help businesses declare their establishments "LGBTQ+ Friendly" or "Transgender Safe Space" on their business listings in Google Maps and Google Search.
  • One year on from our initial donation to the LGBT Center of New York in collaboration with the National Parks Foundation, Google.org is contributing another $500,000 (for a total of $1.5 Million) to the Center to help with the digitization of LGBTQ+ history. The project is called Stonewall Forever, and we need your help to find, preserve, and share the untold stories of LGBTQ+ history.
  • Google Arts & Culture has a dedicated Pride collection celebrating LGBTQ+ history, with 20 exhibits and over 2,700 artifacts, part of which comes from the Stonewall Forever project. 

Ballasts, like families, help us stay steady amidst commotion. Paradoxically, maybe, these heavy things also lift us up.

Celebrating Pride, from our families to yours.

Source: Gmail Blog


Teaching coding, changing lives: Google.org supports MolenGeek

MolenGeek is a digital social project based in Molenbeek, a district of Brussels that has unfortunately been in headlines for negative reasons. Google.org supports nonprofits that seek inventive ways to address some of the world’s toughest problems. Earlier this week, the two organizations came together at MolenGeek’s Brussels HQ to celebrate a Google.org grant providing $250,000—over EUR 200,000—to MolenGeek to expand their inspirational work.

Molenbeek has had a high profile in the international media over the past year, becoming known for radicalization as terror attacks swept Europe. MolenGeek is a part of changing that narrative, a symbol of hope in an area that faces many challenges.

MolenGeek started in 2015 as a Coding School for anyone and everyone to learn digital skills, and to foster inclusion, integration into society and community development. It’s grown to become a co-working space where young people from very diverse backgrounds work, network and share their experiences. It’s already helped 177 young entrepreneurs start their own business or find a job using their newfound skills. In fact, every MolenGeek academy student to date has either created a startup or found a job as a digital worker—a success rate of 100 percent.

“No matter what your background is, everyone should have the chance to strengthen their skills,” Alexander De Croo, Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Cooperation, Digital Agenda, Telecom and Postal Services said at the event this week. “MolenGeek is a good example of how we can offer young people a positive perspective in a world that is becoming faster and more digital.”

The new contribution from Google.org will expand the Coding School with more classrooms, teachers and brighter futures. Alongside the grant, Google volunteers will spend time with MolenGeek administrators to help them develop tutorials in French, Dutch and English for a new comprehensive curriculum for digital skills. Besides Google, the Belgian Federal Government and Digital Belgium were early supporters, and Samsung is another vital investor.

The incubator for 25 startups since 2015, what has been crucial for MolenGeek’s success that it’s a local initiative. MolenGeek’s co-founder Ibrahim Ouassari is the son of Moroccan immigrants and a Molenbeekois. “MolenGeek’s primary mission is to make technology, entrepreneurship and innovation accessible to everyone, regardless of their academic and religious background,” he said. “We are grateful that we can once again count on Google to lend their support and knowledge to the many potential entrepreneurs who will find aid and guidance in our project.”

MolenGeek has generated positive attention for its work to provide alternative options for young people who might otherwise feel left out of opportunities in society. In addition to its regular Coding School, MolenGeek was also a participant in another Google project, "Tackling violent radicalization together,” which included a YouTube Creators for Change workshop on the theme of “fraternity” and a Google Campus visit for 12 MolenGeekers as part of a governmental mission to the USA.

Molengeek Belgium

It’s vital that this work goes further. While the focus so far has been on helping young adults, in the next few months children between seven and 12 will be able to attend MolenGeek’s digital workshops, while those aged 12 to 18 can join the Supercoders program to learn more about coding.

This expansion of digital workshops will reach between 200 and 250 young people in Brussels, every year. And it could have a powerful multiplier effect: many of them will use what they learn to find a job or create their own startups. This in turn will create opportunities for others that are finding chances for their personal and professional development hard to come by, building networks for success.

“Google believes that getting young talent involved in rewarding projects, such as MolenGeek, is important to deliver more opportunities for everyone,” says Lie Junius, Google’s Director of EU Public Policy and Government Relations, who grew up in Molenbeek herself. “Digitization offers phenomenal pathways for everyone in Belgium, its businesses and citizens.”

We’re looking forward to seeing MolenGeek continue their important work.

$100 million for skills and opportunity in Europe, Middle East, and Africa

In March, we pledged to help 1 million Europeans find a job or grow their business by 2020 through our Grow with Google program. Given the rapid digital transformation taking place in the world today, we want to make sure that everyone has the skills to both make the most of the opportunities and navigate the challenges that this presents.


Since we started Grow with Google in 2015, more than 214,000 people have found a new job or started a business thanks to the training offered. Making sure that our efforts are reaching the most disadvantaged requires working in partnership with organizations like OpenClassrooms and Inco, who are at the frontline of supporting those most at risk of missing out. That’s why we announced today at the Tech for Good summit in Paris that we’re committing $100 million over the next five years through Google.org to nonprofit organizations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa that are focused on skills and economic opportunity.


We particularly want to help organizations that focus on using technology and innovation to train people with new skills, connect job seekers with good jobs, and support workers in low-wage employment. According to the European Commission, 44 percent of working-age European adults don’t have basic digital skills. And in the Middle East and North Africa, only 38 percent of youth believe their education gives them the skills they need to enter the workforce. There is clearly a lot of work to do to make the opportunities of the digital economy are available to all, and the nonprofit sector—along with our partners in government, city councils, universities, and private-sector businesses—will play a vital role.


We’re always inspired by what people do when they have access to technology. And with our nonprofit partners, we’re doing everything we can to make sure technology brings opportunity to everyone.

Thanking teachers by helping them get the resources they need

Editor’s note:Teacher Appreciation Week starts today, and we’re honored to have Charles Best, the Founder of DonorsChoose.org as our guest author. We’re big fans of DonorsChoose.org,  and are proud to be longtime supporters of their model of helping teachers. Today, we’re taking that one step further in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. Keep an eye on the Education page and follow along on Twitter throughout the week to see how we’re celebrating.


When I taught history in a public school in the Bronx, many of my fellow teachers had great ideas for books their students could read, field trips they would organize for students, or projects they would do in class, if only there was funding to make those ideas happen. I had a sense that people would want to help teachers like us if they could see exactly where their money was going. So with help from my students, I sketched out a site where teachers could request the exact resources they needed for their classroom, and donors of all stripes could give to the projects that inspired them. Since our founding in 2000, 3 million donors have given $680 million to fund over 1 million classroom projects.

I never could have imagined reaching this scale back in my classroom days, and Google.org has been key to our growth. Google.org shares our belief that teachers understand their students—and the resources they need to teach those students—better than anyone else. Their financial support has empowered teachers across the country to bring their ideas to life.

Since 2012, Google.org has supported 17,000 public school teachers who needed funding for their classrooms. This includes teachers like Mr. Narisetty who needed lab equipment for a new AP Physics lab, Ms. Gibson who needed funding for dolls and costumes for her kindergarteners, and Mrs. Price who requested sensory processing materials to help her students with special needs relax.

Google.org’s continued support has enabled us to pilot new ways to serve students. Back in 2012, they pioneered “Classroom Rewards,” through which teachers who launched new AP STEM courses earned $100 in classroom funding for each student who received a passing score on their AP exam. This program launched more than 500 new AP STEM classes at high schools predominantly serving students from low income families. We recently launched an open source data science project that enables developers to use machine learning to help us match donors with more relevant teacher projects.

All told, Google.org has helped bring almost 23,000 projects to life, providing around $20 million in classroom project funding. One in ten public schools in the U.S. has benefitted from this generosity.

This week, Google.org is helping us celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week by honoring what teachers want and need. Google.org is doubling donations to one category of classroom projects every day this week for a total of up to $500,000. These daily categories, like professional development or art, are based on the terms our teachers have searched for most on DonorsChoose.org.

We’re kicking off the week by supporting Professional Development projects, so that teachers can bring even more skills to the classroom.

Please join us by heading to DonorsChoose.org to show teachers your appreciation in a way you know they’ll love.

Source: Education


Searching for new solutions to the evolving jobs market

We’ve all seen lots of articles about the future of work in today’s rapidly changing economy. Too often, the loudest voices propose just one of two visions for the future. Either globalization and technology will eliminate quality jobs, or we'll adapt to change just like we always have.


Google may be built on code, but we don't believe the future is binary. What lies ahead is hard to predict, and the most likely scenario for the future of work is a new sort of hybrid—with technology both transforming and creating jobs and new models of employment. But we’re confident that, working together, we can shape a labor market where everyone has access to opportunity.


Last year, we launched Grow with Google, an initiative that aims to help everyone across America access the best of Google’s training and tools to grow their skills, careers, and businesses. Google Hire helps employers find great employees. And Google for Jobs helps job seekers find new opportunities.


But making a difference requires more than just one company. Today, as part of our commitment to jobs and opportunity, Walmart and Google are making a $5 million grant investment to three organizations testing solutions in reskilling the American workforce and matching skills to roles.


  • Learning throughout life: The Drucker Institute is partnering with the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to bring together the city’s educational and workforce resources so that everyone has access to skill-building throughout their careers. This “City of Lifelong Learning” will serve as a national model for communities looking to make learning available throughout life.
  • Improving matching between skills and roles: Opportunity@Work is launching the techhire.careers platform, a new tool that helps underserved groups validate their skills for employers and connect to opportunities. This inclusive hiring marketplace helps job seekers and entry-level workers connect to trainings and jobs that make best use of their skills, and helps companies consider and hire nontraditional talent.
  • Backing social innovators with new skilling and job matching ideas:MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy is holding the Inclusive Innovation Challenge, a challenge for social innovators to use technology to reinvent the future of work. Through this tournament, the IDE will be seeking out and funding social innovators experimenting with new ways of helping people develop the skills they need for the digital economy and connect to job opportunities in a new way.

These grants are part of Google.org’s Work Initiative, a search for new solutions to prepare people for the changing nature of work. Last year, we committed $50 million to nonprofits experimenting with new ideas in skill-building, job matching, job quality, and social protections. In response to an open call for proposals, we received hundreds of ideas from across the U.S. In addition to our joint funding with Walmart, today we’re announcing four more grantees:


  • Assessing and credentialing soft skills:Southern New Hampshire University is developing the Authentic Assessment Platform (AAP), an assessment of in-demand soft skills. Results from this assessment will feed into a job placement process for young jobseekers. SNHU will provide those who complete this assessment with an SNHU official badge.
  • Training workers for the gig economy:Samaschool is developing a new training, with both in-person and online components, that helps independent workers learn the basics of finding freelance work, building their careers, managing contracts and taxes, and more.
  • Helping communities adjust to workforce transitions: Just Transition Fund is working with communities in coal country to develop a blueprint for coal-affected communities undergoing workforce transitions, helping them to effectively prepare for jobs in emerging sectors.
  • Aiding employers in clearly signaling their needs:The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation is developing new and open resources to help those who hire to better convey their needs. These tools will include new standards on job descriptions, a digital library of open-sourced competency and credential resources, and a repository of job descriptions for benchmarking.

Through these new grants, we aim to back leading social innovators’ thinking about how work can help more people access not just income, but also purpose and meaning. Over the next several months, we’ll be announcing more grantees, and, most importantly, sharing what Google and all our grantees are learning through these efforts.