Helping more businesses and people get skills to succeed

Editor’s note: Today marks the start of National Small Business Week, a time to celebrate the millions of small businesses across the U.S. that power and connect our communities. This morning, Lisa Gevelber, Founder of Grow with Google, was joined by the Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator, Isabella Casillas Guzman, at an event to announce new resources for businesses to help fuel growth and employee skill development. More details below.

Small businesses drive the U.S. economy and employ more than 46% of workers. We can attribute much of the nation’s economic rebound over the past two years to the hard work of American businesses — and to the digital tools that helped them adapt. At Google, we see how technology is fueling American business growth in the 2.4 billion connections we make every month between American businesses and their customers.

Three out of four U.S. small-and-medium sized businesses reported that adopting digital tools during the pandemic created new opportunities for their business. And digitally advanced businesses report 20 times better customer acquisition rates. Yet almost half (49%) of small businesses still lack the information and skills needed to use digital tools. Filling these skill gaps can help fuel growth for American businesses while creating new opportunities for workers. That’s why we’re expanding our Google Career Certificates program to further meet the needs of businesses and job seekers.

Google Career Certificate scholarships for U.S. businesses

To make it easier for businesses to help their employees get the skills they need, beginning today, U.S. businesses can get up to 500 scholarships each to Google Career Certificates to train their employees.¹ These scholarships are worth up to $100,000 in workforce training per American company. Businesses can apply at grow.google/certificatesforbusiness.

It’s no secret that businesses of all sizes are struggling to acquire and retain talent. Those who create growth opportunities for their employees have a much better shot at retaining them. Businesses can use Google Career Certificates to train their employees for jobs in data analytics, digital marketing & e-commerce, IT support, project management or user experience (UX) design. No experience is required, and employees can earn an industry recognized credential in three to six months of part-time study. For every scholarship we give, a business will be gaining capabilities and, at the same time, an employee will be growing new skills.

Giving businesses more capabilities in e-commerce and digital marketing

The pandemic accelerated the need for digital tools — and we know digitally advanced businesses have been more financially resilient, and have hired at twice the rate compared to less digitally advanced peers.

To ensure businesses of all sizes can use digital marketing and e-commerce to unlock growth opportunities — and that they have access to talent with the know-how — Google is launching a new Digital Marketing & E-commerce Certificate.

This new certificate is rigorous, and endorsed by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) and the American Advertising Federation (AAF). Here’s what you should know:

• This certificate teaches digital marketing and e-commerce skills, including how to find customers, building an online store, measurement and analytics and increasing customer loyalty.
• Like all our certificates, all course instructors are Google employees who are subject-matter experts.
• Learners will get hands-on experience with popular digital marketing and e-commerce tools and platforms such as Canva, Constant Contact, Hootsuite, HubSpot, MailChimp, Shopify and Twitter, as well as Google Ads and Google Analytics.

This certificate is the latest addition to the Google Career Certificates program, which provides flexible online training for skills in high-growth fields. Combined, these certificates provide job seekers with access to more than 1.5 million in-demand jobs in the U.S. Graduates of the program gain access to jobs through our employer consortium, which includes more than 150 companies — such as Crate & Barrel, Infosys, Shopify, Verizon, Walmart, Wayfair and Google — that are eager to hire entry-level talent in these fields.

We’re looking forward to seeing what opportunities businesses, employees and job seekers continue to unlock with the expansion of the program. Learn more and enroll at grow.google/digitalmarketing.