Google Says ¡Presente!

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that information technology jobs will grow by 12 percent over the next decade, far outpacing any other segment of the economy. That may be promising for the American job market, but in order to take advantage of the growth in jobs, workers need to be prepared.

That’s why Google.org, the philanthropic arm of the global information technology leader, awarded a grant of $2 million to Hispanic Federation to launch an accelerator to strengthen institutions serving the Latino community with workforce development and digital training programs. Through this grant, the Hispanic Federation will strengthen the capacity of 20 Latino-led and Latino-serving nonprofit organizations, which in turn will provide “career-aligned” digital skills training to more than 10,000 Latinos over the next two years.

“We know where the jobs will be,” said Hispanic Federation President José Calderón. “The question is whether our community will be prepared to successfully compete for them. This historic grant from Google allows us to leverage our leadership position with the Latino nonprofit community to create community-based programs that get folks ready for the job market of the future.”

The program’s strategic objective is to enhance the digital skills training programs of Latino-led grassroots nonprofits and increase their capacity to prepare Latinos for the workforce of tomorrow. As part of the grant, Hispanic Federation will build a center of excellence for Latino digital workforce development. The initiative includes the creation of a network of 20 technology centers housed by Latino-led and serving nonprofits using a customized curriculum to provide digital skills training to a minimum of 10,000 Latinos to prepare them for the workforce of tomorrow.

“This is a two year project that puts Hispanic Federation at the forefront of Latino job-training,” Calderón said. “We could not be more excited about the possibilities of this collaboration and the impact that it will have on our community. Gracias Google for saying ¡Presente!” For more information about this exciting new partnership, contact Diana Caba.