UPDATE: Google Career Certificates are now CCMR.

Don’t get me wrong. As educators, we need to prepare students for college. But, many students find themselves in different situations where college is not possible. Those who can go to college end up paying loans for a longer time than expected. When I started college, the average loan was $13,639, which more than doubled in 2018⁽¹⁾. Many times, it is difficult to find work right away. It took me a year before I could find work.

Personally, I was in the Army National Guard while working full-time, and going to college. It took me eight years to finish with a B.S. degree in C.S. That is a degree that I never used becuase I went in to teaching classes that had nothing or little to do with C.S.

Life gets in the way. Let’s look at 

• The Data:
  • Sources,
• How you can Grow with Google:
  • Certificates,
  • Career & Technical Education (CTE) Implementations,
• An Alternative to Traditional Universities.

The Data.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics⁽¹⁾, the average tuition & fees for 2018 was $28,123. The average pay was $58,953, according to NACE⁽²⁾. This takes an average of 10 and 30 years to pay off student loans⁽³⁾. What about food, and entertainment? Credit cards were my biggest debt after graduation.

Sources.

1. Accounting for inflation. https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76
2. A rough estimate based on the average of disciplines in 2019 minus the average change rate of disciplines. https://www.wpi.edu/sites/default/files/inline-image/Offices/Career-Development-Center/2020-nace-salary-survey-winter.pdf
3. https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/standard

Grow with Google.

There are two places to start with this alternative education: Grow.Google & the Skillshop. The Skillshop has training on a variety of topics, including:

Ads, Education, Marketing, Analytics, Business, YouTube, Google Cloud, Waze, Android, and many more.

Grow.Google provides “Training and resources to help you learn new skills, find job opportunities, and grow your career… [and] tools to help you grow your business.”

Certificates.

Both Skillshop & Grow.Google offer certificates and other credentials that show the skills students have learned. Not all training that the Skillshop offers will have awards, but you can search for training that provides certificates.

That button shows you all the different awards with descriptions. You can then filter by difficulty.

Search by Topic.

At the Skillshop, you can instead search for certifications by topic. For example, if I click on Topics > Google for Education > Teacher Center, we will find training for Google Certified: Educator, Trainer, Coach, and more. But, those certifications are provided elsewhere at a monetary cost. However, you can filter by Awards and find some credentials for free. For students, they would select what they are interested in learning.

CTE Implementation.

I wrote about implementing the Google Analytics IQ certification in most CTE classrooms in a previous article, which counts towards Career Readiness (NOTE: Google AIQ no longer CCMR). I also wrote about how the Applied Digital Skills curriculum works great with CTE classes.

Career Certificates.

But imagine high school students graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree. Although Google Career Certificates are equivalent to a Bachelor’s Degree with some companies, including Google, Ford, Spectrum, SiriusXM, Target, Verizon, Walmart, and more, those certificates are not technically Bachelor’s Degrees. However, the credentials count towards 12 college credits in some universities, for example, the University of North Texas.

Students who complete their Google Analytics IQ credential can continue (or in conjunction) with the Data Analytics certification. IT Support is an excellent integration for IT classes. Other certifications are Project Management, UX Design, & Android Development (not available for CTE).

The best part is that…

Google Provides Support for CTE Integration for CCMR.

With this in High Schools, students can “…learn job-ready skills to start or advance their careers in high-demand fields.” These courses complement the current CTE curriculum with self-paced online instruction. After graduation, Google provides resources for finding a job with over 150 potential companies. For more info…

OUTSIDE OF CTE, if a student wants to pursue these certifications after graduation, they still can at a low cost compared to a traditional university.

• Training: Free.
• Coursera: $39/mo.
• Exam Fee: $149.

Non-Traditional University.

Imagine getting:

• Associate Degree for $2,500.
• Bachelor’s Degree for $4,700.
• Master’s Degree between $3,000 & $3,700.

University of the People is a tuition-free university. There are some fees like application, assessment, and others. This university can eliminate tuition costs with the help of volunteers, providing all courses online, using open-source software, and donations.

Accreditation.

The quality of the university is comparable to any other. Based out of California, the academic leadership comes from prestigious universities like Princeton U. & NYU. According to the Department of Education (Office of Postsecondary Education), the University of the People is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges – Senior College & University Commission.

Conclusion.

As educators, we need to prepare our students for higher education. Although our goal is for students to go to a University, there are other options for higher education.

Do you know of any other resources?

Let me know in the comments.