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Google and online education program provider Udacity have launched a new scholarship initiative for aspiring Web and Android application developers.
The two companies will offer 50,000 scholarships to people wishing to pursue a career in either of these two fields. The scholarships will be available to U.S. residents age 18 or older at all skill levels from absolute newcomers to experienced developers, the two companies announced Oct. 12.
Scholarship recipients will receive free technical training in either Web development or the Android developers program.
The scholarship program is part of a broader “Grow with Google” initiative that CEO Sundar Pichai announced Thursday. Under the program the company will offer free tools, training and events in a bid to help people become more computer literate and better prepared for jobs requiring modern technology skills. The tools and courses are being aimed at a fairly wide cross section of people including job seekers, local business owners, teachers and developers.
“Grow with Google is there to give anyone in America the tools and training they need to get a job, for free,” Pichai said in comments on Google’s The Keyword blog.
Individuals accepted into the newly announced scholarship program will be placed into one of two tracks: a Beginner track for those with no prior software developer or technology experience and an Intermediate track for individuals with some Web or Android development experience. Up to 15,000 scholarships are available for the beginner track and 10,000 are available for those with intermediate level skills.
In the first phase of the program, scholarship recipients will get three months of free access to one of four courses ranging from an introductory course in HTML and CSS to an Android App development course for more advanced students.
The top 5,000 students from the first phase will qualify for an additional six-month scholarship to what Google calls a Nanodegree program. Students who qualify for one of the four available Nanodegree scholarship programs will receive free access to more advanced training material, as well as classroom time and access to experts in Web and mobile application development.
As part of the Grow with Google program the company is also working with Coursera to develop a professional certification program that the company says will prepare individuals for IT jobs in between 8 and 12 months.
The IT Support Professional Certificate program will launch in January 2018 and will offer 2,600 full scholarships. Google and Coursera will work with major employers to try and place graduates from the program into IT jobs.