Surrey, BC – Surrey Libraries is excited to announce that it has been selected by Google as one of only four Canadian libraries to help deliver hands-on digital skills training to Canadians from coast to coast. Along with Surrey Libraries, Google is partnering with Toronto, Hamilton, and Edmonton public libraries to promote and support the Google IT Support Professional Certificate Project. Over the next two years, this project will work to grow and develop IT support capacity to fill the significant job vacancies across the country.
The Google IT Support Professional Certificate Project is an education program designed to make participants job-ready for entry-level IT support positions. It’s an 8-month online course delivered through the learning platform, Coursera.
Google.org is providing $1.1 million in charitable grant funding to support the facilitation of the Google IT Support Professional Certificate Program across Canada. The grant is being used to fund scholarships across the country and provide hands-on support for scholarship recipients through a full-time program facilitator at all four libraries. Surrey Libraries is working with WorkBC and other community partners to identify candidates for the scholarships.
“We’re so pleased Surrey Libraries was chosen by Google to help support this program,” said Surinder Bhogal, Chief Librarian at Surrey Libraries. “Surrey is the fastest growing city in British Columbia, with a diverse and talented population. The program also aligns well with one of the library’s objectives to support digital skills development in preparation for a stronger workforce.”
Out of the 500 scholarship recipients across the country, 100 will be supported right here in Surrey with individualized help from the team at Surrey Libraries. The first cohort for the course started on April 1 with the second cohort expected to follow in February 2020. Google estimates that the program will take participants 8 months to complete, assuming 10 hours of work per week. However, if students have more time to devote to the course, they could complete it in as little as 5 months. Registrants have a total of 12 months to complete the program.
People interested in the Google IT Support Professional Certificate can find out more through Coursera at: https://grow.google/intl/ALL_ca/programs/it-support/.