CU Boulder is partnering with Google to offer students and recent graduates the opportunity to earn free online career certificates that are recognized credentials by many major employers. CU Boulder is the first four-year institution in Colorado to partner with Google to offer the Google Career Certificates program.
“This innovative partnership—the first of its kind in the state—allows students to add a quality, industry-recognized credential to their collegiate experience potentially enhancing a student’s marketability in the workforce,” said Angie Paccione, executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education. “It also aligns with our stackable credentials work, which allows employers to inform postsecondary program curriculum to ensure graduates are developing the skills and competencies most valued by employers—a clear win-win for students and employers.”
The Google Career Certificates program at CU Boulder will primarily target juniors, seniors and recent graduates who are preparing to enter the workforce. The program will also be offered to employees of CU Boulder’s Office of Infrastructure and Sustainability as part of this pilot.
The program will help CU learners gain in-demand technical skills and forward-looking credentials to help them succeed in the digital economy.
“In today’s fast-paced environment, it is critical for students and young alumni to have options to upskill and gain work-based experience alongside their world class CU Boulder education,” said Dylan Mark, professional experiences program manager at CU Boulder Career Services. “Google Career Certificates offer CU Boulder learners a unique opportunity to explore skills and interests, pursue in-demand fields and provide certification of achievement to prospective employers.”
The program will be hosted on the Coursera platform and will provide access to six Google Career Certificates in fields such as data analytics, project management, IT support and UX design. These certificates are designed and taught by Google employees and are considered stackable credentials, or part of a sequence of credentials that can be accumulated over time to demonstrate an individual’s expanded knowledge and competencies. They are recognized by over 150 employers, including Deloitte, Ford, Verizon, Walmart and Google itself.
These certificates will help CU Boulder students align their skillsets and showcase their talents to employers that value the knowledge, skills and abilities taught in the Google Career Certificates program. The microcredentials that students can earn in this program will be a valuable add-on to the degrees that they are getting from our campus.
“This is an exciting partnership for our campus that will support our students and staff in learning new skills that are directly applicable to work-based experience while enhancing their CU Boulder degrees in new ways,” said Robert McDonald, dean of University Libraries and senior vice provost of online education. “We are so glad that Google wants to offer our students and staff some of their best instructional content in ways that will create new opportunities at graduation and beyond.”
CU Boulder has a history of partnership with Google which has grown over the years. The collaboration includes scholarship support for students in the Department of Computer Science and support for CU Boulder’s Media Archaeology Lab.
