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Key Partners
Status
Start year of the initiative:
2014 – still ongoing.
Next steps of initiative:
Regional expansion: Expanding the programme from 170,000 to 750,000 participants annually in Spain and Latin America in 2015; researching how to replicate the project in other countries in Europe.
Impact
Country(ies) of impact:
Spain, Latin America, México, Colombia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Chile, Argentina
Number of people impacted annually:
Trained 170,000 students and offered 30,000 certifications including Latin American students.
Time to intended impact:
Less than 2 years
Metrics:
- Jobs created
- Graduation rates of participants
- Job placement rates of participants
- Partnerships developed
Benefit to organization:
- Indirect benefit to organization
Key Partners
Status
Start year of the initiative:
2014 – still ongoing.
Next steps of initiative:
Regional expansion: Expanding the programme from 170,000 to 750,000 participants annually in Spain and Latin America in 2015; researching how to replicate the project in other countries in Europe.
Impact
Country(ies) of impact:
Spain, Latin America, México, Colombia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Chile, Argentina
Number of people impacted annually:
Trained 170,000 students and offered 30,000 certifications including Latin American students.
Time to intended impact:
Less than 2 years
Metrics:
- Jobs created
- Graduation rates of participants
- Job placement rates of participants
- Partnerships developed
Benefit to organization:
- Indirect benefit to organization
Activate
Submitted by Google
Objective
To train a pool of young talent with skills required for digital skills jobs and connect them to job opportunities.
Overview and Main Activities
Activate is a pilot initiative that provides free online and offline training in the digital skills space. Training targets unemployed youth from Spain (80%), though some online courses are taken by students in other regions of Latin America (20%). The main target audience is unemployed people with a degree under 30 years old; however, as the course is free, anyone can apply.
Training is offered in the following five domains:
- Digital marketing – face-to-face and online
- E-commerce – online
- Web analytics – online
- Apps development – online
- Cloud computing – online
Face-to-face and online courses take 40 hours on average.
- Face-to-face courses cover theory and include two visits from entrepreneurs, four workshops in groups (including one on how to find a job at a digital agency), four commented case studies, 13 exams and a forum/community where students share experiences
- Online courses cover theory and include activities, 13 exams and a forum/community where students share experiences
Students can sign up for as many courses as they want. Many students sign up for one; then, if they’re still unemployed, they tend to sign up for other courses.
Google involvement includes:
- Acting as main coordinator of the initiative
- Selecting trainers
- Reviewing content with the Certification Partner (EOI, IAB, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, etc.)
Google employees do not give any training; it is delivered only by third parties.
To date, Activate has trained 170,000 students and awarded 30,000 certifications. Certification for each course is issued by the Certification Partner and requires students to attend all 40 hours and pass all 13 exams (each student can take an exam up to three times).
After certification, student profiles are posted to Google’s private job platform, which connects digital companies with certified students.
The shadowing programme allows one Activate graduate a two-day visit to a digital agency to show them the agency world. This has led to a number of hires. Partners include Infoempleo, Santander Universidades, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Employment, 21 public universities in Spain, Escuela de Organización Industrial and the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
Success Factors and Challenges
Most critical success factors:
- Partner support of 21 main public universities
- Expertise and experience in executing the practice
- Content of the practice and quality of teachers
Main challenges:
- Pilot programme with a very small team
- Different internal processes of various partners
Recommendations for Others
Initially, the focus was on training a large base so that an entire generation would be digital-skill ready. After seeing the success, Activate went one step further to help graduates find a job start their own company. This required more resources and a base of companies needing digital talent.
Since this aspect is so resource-intensive, it helps to have people fully dedicated to building a scalable way of helping many graduates simultaneously and ensuring there’s a database of companies ready to recruit digital talent. Those companies’ employers need to be committed to the idea of having a pool of digital talent available.
Replicability and Scalability
How easily could other organizations implement this initiative?
Difficult: In order to have credibility, each organization must teach skills for employment plus skills in which they have expertise. Following up with students is difficult.
How easily can this initiative be expanded to include a larger number of participants?
Very easy: The partnership with the 12 main public universities in Spain allows the initiative to be easily scalable. Expanding the number of partnerships means a larger number of participants.
About the Organization
Website: www.google.com
Sector: Information Technology
Size (number of employees): 50,000 – 100,000
Headquarters: Mountain View, United States