Google IT Support Program

[sanantone]

If you go to Google.com, you might see a notification at the bottom telling you that the Google IT Support Program is offered at community colleges in your state. However, after scanning through a dozen articles, I could not find a comprehensive list of those community colleges. I came across three or four community colleges that showed up in news searches with their own articles announcing the partnership, but I came across nothing in my state. 

This program is actually offered through Coursera, and the plan is to have community colleges integrate the curriculum into their own programs. If you want to skip the whole CC thing, you can just get a certificate from Coursera. They're not really transparent. You have to log into Coursera and click on "Enroll Me" to see that they charge $49 per month for the program. The program consists of five courses that should take 8-10 weeks to complete. They recommend that you take them one at a time, so the entire program is expected to take eight months to complete. If you have some time on your hands, you can probably do all of these courses at the same time. 

Google has enlisted major companies as partners that should consider hiring graduates of this program. So far, 40,000 people have signed up, and Google has given 10,000 scholarships to low-income individuals and veterans. The deadline to apply for a scholarship was in February, so I'm not sure if they have anymore. 

https://grow.google/programs/it-support/

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There's a 7-day free trial. Don't make the same mistake I did and sign up for it today because the next session doesn't start until July 2nd. I started the free trial, but I won't have access to the courses until Sunday. I'm going to blame Coursera for offering a free trial for something that isn't available.