Google has struck a deal with public colleges statewide to teach in-demand tech skills.
The Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), which oversees The College System of Tennessee, recently announced a partnership to offer Google Career Certificates at its higher education institutions. The deal includes TBR's two Memphis colleges: Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) Memphis and Southwest Tennessee Community College.
The partnership with Google is set to allow students to take beginner-level, Google-designed courses that take three to six months to complete and gain certificates that are recognized by many employers, including Google and Ford.
"This collaboration will empower our students and community members to acquire essential skills needed to compete in today’s digital economy," Amy Shead, associate VP of workforce development for Southwest, said over email. “At this time, we are in the initial stages of planning, and specific details and timelines are still being developed."
Gwen Sutton, president of TCAT Memphis, said over email that they plan to start offering this opportunity late in the fall trimester or early in the spring trimester.
With nearly 7,000 students, Southwest is No. 3 on MBJ's List of colleges and universities ranked by 2023 fall enrollment. TCAT Memphis is No. 7, with about 1,750 students.
While details for the programs at the two Memphis schools are still being figured out, the courses may be offered as part of existing courses, courses by themselves, or integrated into workforce training, where students work directly with prospective employers, according to a TBR new release.
The courses include Google's new artificial intelligence (AI) essentials course, which focuses on learning how to prompt AI chatbots, like Google's Gemini, and AI ethics.
Other courses are in what Google has identified as high-growth and in-demand fields, including cybersecurity, data analytics, digital marketing and e-commerce, information technology (IT) support, project management, and user experience (UX) design.
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