Google unveils digital training scholarships for Malaysians

• Google Career Certificates are now available to all Malaysians through the Gemilang program to gain tech skills across six areas.
• The six areas include data analytics, IT support, IT automation, project management, UX Design, and digital marketing & e-commerce
• Google will also offer 31,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships through local partners including education institutions, industry partners, and nonprofits to earn a certificate at no cost. 

Digital training programs have become increasingly in demand in most parts of the world following the COVID-19 pandemic. In Southeast Asia, most businesses have encouraged their employees to take part in digital training programs as well to improve and upskill themselves, especially with industries becoming more competitive and adopting newer technologies.

Apart from employees being encouraged to attend digital training courses, those that have been laid off from their work due to the pandemic have also picked up more skills over digital training to be more skillful. In some countries, the government itself has worked with tech companies to offer digital training and upskilling programs to the workforce.

For example in Malaysia, the government launched initiatives aimed at upskilling the workforce through partnerships with various organizations. The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Malaysia stated that digital job vacancies have almost tripled as of April last year yet a PwC report shows that 88% of Malaysians surveyed are ready to learn new skills or completely retrain to remain employable in the future.

A report from the Social & Economic Research Initiative (SERI) also shows that the most in-demand digital skills in the country include big data analytics, digital marketing, and artificial intelligence. Additionally, a report by AlphaBeta found that if leveraged fully, digital technologies could create up to USD257.2 billion worth of economic value annually in Malaysia by 2030.

With the demand for digital skills increasing, Google has launched a new digital training program in Malaysia. The Gemilang program offers flexible learning paths for all Malaysians including Google Career Certificates, enabling learners to develop their knowledge and acquire digital skills for high-demand jobs.

In its mission to Advance Malaysia Together, Google has also reinforced its commitment to enable an equitable and inclusive digital economy by offering 31,000 scholarships through local partners, comprising education institutions, industry partners, and nonprofits.

According to Marc Woo, Managing Director of Google Malaysia, to ensure the growth of the digital economy supports as many Malaysians as possible, Google is committed to supporting a more equitable and inclusive digital ecosystem.

“We at Google Malaysia, together with our partners, want to provide digital skilling opportunities to all Malaysians from all backgrounds. It gives me great honor to launch our new training program, Gemilang. Through Gemilang, even more, Malaysians will be able to access training opportunities, learn new skills, find jobs and build their careers in the digital economy as it continues to grow.”

Available on the online education platform Coursera, Google Career Certificates are self-paced online training programs that enable learners with no prior experience or a degree to unlock new job opportunities in 6 areas – data analytics, IT support, IT automation, project management, UX Design, and digital marketing & e-commerce. Each certificate is created by Google’s in-house experts and designed to equip learners with fundamental skills through hands-on learning, allowing them to progress at their own pace while studying or working.

The 31,000 scholarships for Google Career Certificates will be offered through partners that include educational institutions, industry partners such Celcom Axiata Berhad and Trainocate as well as nonprofits including Girls in Tech, Malaysian Digital Association, Women in Tech, and Yayasan Tunku Abdul Rahman to distribute the scholarships.

Google Cloud is also partnering with universities, like Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) to offer the Google Cloud training curriculum to equip undergraduates with technical proficiency in cloud computing and prepare them for careers in data analytics, machine learning, and application development, and more.

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