With less than two weeks until the first courses begin, University of Nebraska faculty, staff, students and alumni are encouraged to take advantage of a discounted rate and enroll in Google Career Certificate programs that can improve skillsets and advance careers.

The Career Certificates are being made available to members of the university community and all Nebraskans through a new partnership between NU and Google announced in April aimed at supporting workforce growth and expanding access to quality education statewide.

Under the partnership, students, faculty, staff, alumni and Nebraskans can sign up for Career Certificate programs in any of nine high-demand, high-growth fields like cybersecurity, IT, data analytics and business intelligence at a special first-year rate of $20 per course.

Programs will be offered in three cycles in 2024-25, with the first courses beginning Aug. 1 and continuing in December and April. In each cycle, 2,500 seats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Courses take four months to complete and are open to students, faculty, staff and alumni of any University of Nebraska institution as well as all Nebraska residents.

Registration for the Google programs is available here. A limited number of slots for the Aug. 1 cohort remain open.

As of mid-July, more than 1,500 Nebraskans had already pre-registered, including hundreds of current NU students – signaling strong interest in supplementing existing four-year university degree programs with additional credentials and swiftly “upskilling” in the job market.

National surveys show strong employer support for “microcredentials” like the Google certificates. In line with those trends, the university, through its NU Advance initiative, offers a broad and growing portfolio of online non-credit and professional education options that aim to make high-quality programs accessible for all Nebraskans looking to learn new skills and increase their marketability.

The partnership with Google also allows University of Nebraska faculty the opportunity to incorporate Google content in their classwork and to complement for-credit options. Interested faculty are invited to contact Ana Lopez Shalla, lead for microcredentials for the University of Nebraska, at [email protected].