MANILA CITY — Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Fred Pascual expressed his appreciation to Google Philippines for its partnership with the DTI for the 2024 Google Career Certificate (GCC) scholarships program, which was announced during theUS Trade Mission meeting in Malacañang on 11 March 2024.

Whether you are a micro, small and medium enterprise, an owner or employee, or any individual who seeks a more significant job opportunity, today’s success requires 21st-century skills,” said Secretary Pascual as he emphasized the significance of the partnership in upskilling and reskilling the Philippine workforce.

“We already built a strong partnership with Google, and we are pleased that through our Negosyo Centers nationwide, we can leverage these online courses to reach more stakeholders across the country,” the DTI secretary added

Google Philippines, together with partners including the DTI, previously distributed over 40,000 scholarships to Filipino youth jobseekers, MSME employees, entrepreneurs from marginalized and underrepresented sectors, and Philippine civil servants. This is to boost their digital skills on cybersecurity, IT support, data analytics, and digital marketing among others.

This year, the DTI and Google Philippines will roll out more GCC in DTI virtual campuses covering over 1,300 DTI Negosyo Centers in 16 regions nationwide. The DTI regional and provincial offices will offer the use of Negosyo Centers in cooperation with local government units (LGUs) to support the learners in completing the course.

Under the program, the DTI will nominate qualified recipients and distribute GCCs through Coursera, an open online course provider. The nomination for qualified GCC recipients will prioritize the following:

  1. Medium, small and micro business owners pursuing business digitalization, including their staff, and
  2. Women, out-of-school youth, persons with disability, senior citizens, and unemployed or underemployed individuals.

Acknowledging the Philippines’ potential transition in digitalization, Vice President for Google Southeast Asia and South Asia Frontier, Sapna Chadha emphasized, “We have invested actively in the country’s digital development. This includes digital skills training and digital infrastructure improvements. Our commitment has yielded significant economic benefits for the Philippines with our network investments alone that boosted the GDP by U.S. $14 billion and created 93,000 jobs. These outcomes motivate us to further deepen our collaboration with the Philippines and our efforts as a partner in building a robust digital economy.” ♦

Date of release: 17 March 2024

 

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