Google has trained five million people in Europe and five million people across Africa and the Middle East, bringing them to a total of 10 million people who have participated in training across these regions alone. Launched in 2015, Google’s Grow with Google initiative has reached job seekers, business owners, teachers, developers and students in more than 80 countries around the world, says Matt Brittin, President, Business & Operations, Europe, Middle East and Africa, in a blog post.

Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai tweets, “#GrowWithGoogle has now helped train 10M people in digital skills across Europe, Middle East & Africa since 2017. It's a great milestone and we will continue our work helping people learn new digital skills, find jobs and grow their businesses.”

Since 2016, 45 percent of Digital Workshop trainees reported they’d found a job, accelerated their career or grown their business by hiring new staff or increasing revenue (from IPSOS research), according to the company. In Europe, 48 percent of the people trained were women; a quarter were unemployed and 90 percent of business trainees came from small businesses.  

The company plans to help an additional one million more people in Europe find a job, grow their business or build their career by 2020 as well as training an additional 10 million people in Africa.

In the next 10 to 15 years, 90 percent of all jobs will require some level of digital skills, leading to a skills gap. New jobs will be created from technology, but it’s also estimated that 14 percent could be replaced by automation and another 32 percent are set to change radically in terms of their scope and focus. That was one of the drivers the Search behemoth launched their training initiative. 

Grow with Google was launched in 2015 with free training, products, and tools designed to help people find a job, advance their career or grow their business.