Military Spouses “Grow With Google”
Military life can make finding the right job very challenging for military spouses. With frequent moves, and having to be there for their families during deployments, taking time out for their own career can be difficult. The good news is, Blue Star Families, and Google’s Grow With Google program are rolling out digital skills training for military spouses to help with this issue.
How Can Military Spouses Grow With Google?
As of May 10, 2019, Grow with Google announced new tools as well as resources. They will be able to help military spouses build flexible, meaningful careers despite the common challenge of frequent moves. As a part of this, Blue Star Families, (BSF) a leading non-profit that supports military spouses, will be providing in-demand digital skills training workshops throughout the next year.
IVMF
Google.org will be supporting Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families, IVMF. IVMF is an interdisciplinary academic training institute focused on advancing the post-service lives of the nation’s military veterans and their families. The grant from Google.org will provide 1,500 scholarships and support services for veterans and transitioning military personnel spouses, to complete the Google IT Professional Support Certificate through the IVMF;s Onward to Opportunity professional certification training curriculum. This curriculum is offered at 18 military installations, as well as virtually with 1,000 of these scholarships going to military spouses.
It is not a shock that military spouse unemployment is higher than civilian unemployment rates. They also can make less money than their civilian peers. Google understands this and wants to help.
Grow with Google Training Programs
Through Grow with Google, Applied Digital Skills is a free online digital skills training program for all ages. They released a new lesson today, “Connect and Collaborate From Anywhere with Digital Tools,” which is ideal for those in the military lifestyle. Primer, which is Grow with Google’s app for small businesses and job seekers, will offer new lessons called, “Finding or Transitioning to Remote Work,” “Keys to Working Remotely,” and “Collaborating While Working Remotely.” These are also ideal for veterans and military spouses.
Blue Star Families Annual Survey
Blue Star Families has an annual survey that they send out every year. Through this survey they can see what military spouses are most concerned about and what they want to change. According to Blue Star Families CEO Kathy Roth-Douquet, “In 2018, their top recommendation (47%) for improving spouse under/unemployment was for advocates to work with large corporations to design military spouse-friendly work options. And that’s precisely what we’re doing with Grow with Google. This new program will empower thousands of military spouses with the digital skills they need to build flexible, meaningful careers no matter where they live.”
Google’s New Job Search Functions
Google’s new job search function will provide more quality and full-time remote jobs. People can search by interests and filter, “work from home” jobs. Employers and job boards can also provide this feature on their own career sites with Google Cloud’s Talent Solution.
Last August, Google also created a tool to help transitioning service members land civilian jobs. Veterans and active service members can search, “jobs for veterans” on Google as well as their military occupation code to find the right after-military job.
As you can see, these are some great tools that can help military spouses find a job that works better for them. Finding a remote job will allow a military spouse to travel with their career, and this is better for the entire military community as a whole.
You can read more about this here.
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About the author
Julie Provost is a freelance writer, and blogger. She lives in Tennessee with her National Guard husband and three boys.
