Google and Bertelsmann launch mobile digital skills initiatives with Udacity - 10,000 Android scholarships available for EU developers
The great thing about the web is that it enables anyone—from anywhere, of any age, and any skill set—to start a new business, grow an existing one, become an entrepreneur, a developer or a content creator or hone a new skill. From Berlin to Birmingham we’ve met people across Europe who are doing just that—developing the digital know-how needed to achieve their dreams.
Like Evrard in France, who works for GreenRiver, a small company providing private cruises along the river Seine and the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris. He joined our training program Google pour Les Pros, where he was trained by a Google AdWords advisor over three months. He learned how to launch digital marketing campaigns and discovered other tools that helped increase their online visibility. He told us, “After Google pour Les Pros training our business grew by 30 percent and sales grew by 60 percent in one year.” Green River is now using Evrard’s learning as a stepping stone to further success.
Evrard is just one of the nearly 2 million people we’ve trained over the last 2 years as part of our Growth Engine program to help close the digital skills gap among Europeans. And yet there’s still more work to be done. On current projections, the growing gap between skills required and the training that workers receive, has lead the EU to predict that almost a million ICT jobs would remain unfilled by 2020.
That’s why today Google, Bertelsmann (the global media, services and education company) and e-learning provider Udacity are coming together with a goal of closing the mobile digital skills gap in Europe and preparing the new European workforce with the mobile development skills needed to help them get a job or start their own business.
In Europe, more than half the population primarily uses their mobile phone to access the web, and that’s only increasing. This represents a huge opportunity for ambitious Europeans to join the more than 1.3 million developers in the region benefitting from the advancement of the mobile economy. According to Stackoverflow 2015 study, 42 percent of developers are self taught and could benefit from acquiring new expertise to take them to the next level. Android tops the list of new languages that developers want to learn.
We want to help, which is why we’re funding 10,000 Android Developer training scholarships across the EU via Udacity. Aspiring developers can apply for one of 9,000 scholarships for an Android Basics course and more experienced programmers for one of 1,000 scholarships for the Associate Android Developer Fast Track, a training course that leads to Android developer certification, a key credential for the industry. Applications are open at https://www.udacity.com/google-scholarships.
At the same time, Bertelsmann will start shifting skill-building and training budgets across its about 1,000 businesses towards ICT, in conjunction with Udacity’s training programs. In addition, starting next year, every qualified apprentice, student and trainee at Bertelsmann—about 2,000 women and men across Europe—will be granted a Nanodegree scholarship.
By getting together with Bertelsmann and Udacity we aim to close the mobile digital skills gap, and help people to get the in-demand skills needed to get a job or advance their career. These scholarships are a chance for all aspiring mobile developers to make the most of the opportunity by mastering accredited digital skills that will put them on the path to success. We look forward to seeing what they do next.
