Google’s Career Certificates Initiative

Project

Overview

Project Overview

With support from the $100 million Google Career Certificates Fund, Social Finance aims to empower more than 20,000 learners to realize over $1 billion in aggregate wage gains over the next decade. Google Career Certificates are industry-recognized credentials that prepare people for in-demand, entry-level jobs in the fields of data analytics, IT support, project management, and user experience design.

Learners enroll with a training provider partner to earn a certificate with no upfront training costs. The certificate courses feature skills training for high-growth careers; learner-friendly no-interest financing to be repaid only if trainees land a job earning at least $40,000 a year; and wraparound supports that can include employment-related services, such as living stipends, child care support, interview preparation, and job placement assistance.

MDRC is designing a rigorous evaluation of the program to assess its effectiveness in supporting economic mobility for learners who have been historically underrepresented in the technology sector.

Google is funding the initiative. Social Finance is designing the initiative to deploy funding toward optimal student outcomes.

STATUS: Current

Basics

Issue: Work and Income Security

Focus Area: Job Retention and Advancement

Population: Populations with Low Incomes

Focus Population: People in Low-Wage Jobs, People Who Are Unemployed or Underemployed

Intervention: Sectoral Training, Job Training

Google Creates $100 Million Fund for Skills Training Program

Social Finance is managing the investment program. An independent research firm, MDRC, will evaluate the performance of the training and job placement programs over time.

Agenda, Scope, <br> & Goals

Agenda, Scope, and Goals

The Google Career Certificates Fund aims to create a more equitable job market and to prepare learners, especially those from underserved backgrounds, for in-demand, high-wage-growth jobs.

MDRC, in partnership with Social Finance, will design and conduct an evaluation of the program to address research questions such as:

What are the effects of the program on employment, earnings, and wage growth?
What is the effect of the program on use of public benefits, such as unemployment insurance, Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and others?
What are the effects of the program on social determinants of health, including food security, housing stability, and physical and mental well-being?
How has the program been effective at addressing equity and diversification in the technology sector? Do program effects differ across gender, race, and key subgroups defined by communities underrepresented in the technology sector?

Additionally, MDRC will conduct data analytics to explore how the program’s training, wraparound services, and financing components are related to learners’ program performance, completion, and employment outcomes.

STATUS: Current

Basics

Issue: Work and Income Security

Focus Area: Job Retention and Advancement

Population: Populations with Low Incomes

Focus Population: People in Low-Wage Jobs, People Who Are Unemployed or Underemployed

Intervention: Sectoral Training, Job Training

Google Creates $100 Million Fund for Skills Training Program

Social Finance is managing the investment program. An independent research firm, MDRC, will evaluate the performance of the training and job placement programs over time.

Design, Sites, & <br> Data Sources

Design, Sites, and Data Sources

The research design will explore measuring program effects through an impact evaluation. The research design and analysis will rely on baseline data about learners collected during study intake, program activity data from the providers, perspectives of learners, program staff, and other stakeholders, a survey of study participants, and administrative data on earnings.

The inaugural training providers in the evaluation are Year Up and Merit America.

STATUS: Current

Basics

Issue: Work and Income Security

Focus Area: Job Retention and Advancement

Population: Populations with Low Incomes

Focus Population: People in Low-Wage Jobs, People Who Are Unemployed or Underemployed

Intervention: Sectoral Training, Job Training

Google Creates $100 Million Fund for Skills Training Program

Social Finance is managing the investment program. An independent research firm, MDRC, will evaluate the performance of the training and job placement programs over time.

Funders & <br />Partners

Funders

MDRC Staff

Richard Hendra
Director, MDRC Center for Data Insights
Hendra directs the Center for Data Insights, which uses rigorous data science methods to improve programs that serve populations in need.
More »
Edith Yang
Senior Associate, Economic Mobility, Housing, and Communities
Yang joined MDRC in 2008 and her work spans the areas of employment, housing and homelessness, financial inclusion, community development, and postsecondary education. Her work encompasses project development, project management, data science methods, impact and process analyses, and benefit-cost analysis.
More »
Frieda Molina
Director, Economic Mobility, Housing, and Communities
Molina has over 20 years of experience providing technical and operational assistance to workforce development service providers, and has worked at MDRC for 17 years on numerous workforce development evaluations.
More »
Audrey Yu
Research Associate, Economic Mobility, Housing, and Communities
Yu is a quantitative researcher in MDRC’s Economic Mobility, Housing, and Communities policy area.
More »
Pei Zhu
Senior Associate, K-12 Education
Zhu is an economist in MDRC’s K-12 Education Policy Area whose current work focuses on experimental and quasi-experimental impact analyses, evaluation design, and related methodological issues.
More »
Melissa West
Research Analyst, Economic Mobility, Housing, and Communities
West serves as a resource manager in the Economic Mobility, Housing, and Communities policy area. In this role, she supports project directors and task leaders with project management by developing and maintaining budgets and work plans.
More »

Principal Investigator

Project Director

Search form

Want to learn more about this and related topics?

Project

STATUS: Current

Basics

STATUS: Current

Basics

STATUS: Current

Basics