Job Hunting with Jobina: No college degree? Google offers certificates, new tools for job seekers

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Lisa Gevelber is the vice president of Grow with Google. According to her team, about 50 percent of workers will need reskilling to meet the increase in technology and changing employment landscape by 2025. Many people included in that data won't have the ability to get a college degree.

"We created the Google Career Certificates really for the 80 million Americans who don't have a college degree," Gevelber said. "You know a lot of those folks feel like a good job was out of reach for them. We wanted to break down that barrier."

The certificate programs are online via Coursera in product management, data analytics, IT support, and user experience design. The four career fields are in demand now and are growing.

"The entry level salary in those fields is $69,000 dollars a year or more across the country," Gevelber said. "Even in our first career certificate area, more than half the people who graduated were people who weren't traditionally in tech. They were female, minority or even veterans."

Google has 130 employers in their consortium that Gevelber told ABC7 News are ready to hire Google Career Certificates graduates now, that includes Google itself.

"We're super eager to hire folks in all four of these fields," Gevelber said.

During the pandemic, Google has seen an 800 percent increase in searches for jobs without college degrees and created a new feature to help find them.

"So if you type in 'no degree required jobs,' or 'jobs that don't require a college degree,' something like that, we show you at the top the highest paying jobs in your area that don't require a college degree," Gevelber said.

Job seekers can also filter for different levels of experience and identify positions for veterans.

THURSDAY'S FEATURED JOB:

Company: Google

Job: Data Center Technician

Qualifications: Associate's degree, trade school certification or other verifiable training

Duties: Install, configure, test, troubleshoot and maintain hardware

Click here for more information on this job.