Nearly two-thirds of all jobs in the United States require medium or advanced digital skills, but 50 percent of Black jobseekers lack digital skills. To help bridge the digital gap, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund is partnering with Google to launch the Grow with Google Career Readiness Program. The initiative will help train 20,000 HBCU students in digital skills over the next school year.
While the student bodies of HBCUs are incredibly diverse, HBCUs disproportionately serve low-income and first-generation students who may be less academically ready than their peers. The Grow with Google HBCU Career Readiness Program aims to help these students by providing funding, digital skills workshops, and custom jobseeker content to HBCU career centers to help students and alumni gain the tools and training needed to secure a job and excel in the workplace.
The initiative will start at four HBCUs — Bowie State University in Maryland, Virginia State University, Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina, and Southern University A&M College in Louisiana. The goal is to have 20 participating HBCUs by January and to have the program be available to all HBCUs by fall 2021.
Harry L. Williams, president of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, stated that “we rely on partnerships and initiatives like the Grow with Google HBCU Career Readiness program to help us continue our work and expand our impact. All sectors and organizations have a part to play to ensure everyone has access to education and economic mobility. We’re proud of the lives that will be touched and the careers that will be shaped through the start of this program.”