22K tech jobs up for grabs; Google will help train you

VANCOUVER -

The pandemic may have put many people out of work but it has also created new opportunities and opened doors previously closed for many Canadians.

Google Canada says there are 22,000 tech jobs available and the company is offering to help Canadians get them. These are not minimum wage jobs either, but you will need some training in order to qualify.

However, you do not have to leave home or go to a tech school to get training.

“Digital skills are really critical right now,” said Sabrina Geremia, vice-president and country manager at Google Canada. “The whole recovery is going to be happening online.”

Google is offering five different types of professional certificates through Coursera. It costs $50 a month to gain training for well-paying tech jobs and Google is offering up to $2 million in scholarships. The certificates cover areas like IT support, project management and UX design.

Typically, you can complete each course in less than six months.

According to Indeed, the average starting salary for an IT support job is $53,000. A UX Design position could pay around $80,000.

Stephanie Sidwell, who works for a non-profit agency in Squamish, got the IT support certificate on scholarship and it paid off when COVID-19 struck.

“I had to help set up over almost a hundred employees to work remotely, which was a big task for one person. But having the course under my belt and fresh in my mind really helped me understand what I was doing and what I needed to do.”

And she did it at home while taking care of her family.

“I did a lot of my course with a three-month-old baby sleeping on me,” she said.

Sidwell says it would not have been possible if she had to travel to go to a tech school or university.

“We saw folks that had no experience in digital now landed in jobs that they love that are in digital fields,” said Geremia.

Google is working with companies, like KPMG, to help place those who successfully complete the Google certification process in jobs.

“We’re growing we’ve got lots of opportunities,” explained Emily Brine, managing director of talent and culture. “We’re hoping for, you know, new and diverse talent pools that we wouldn’t have historically seen.”