SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 11, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Year Up
Bay Area (YUBA), a nonprofit
workforce development program for motivated and talented young
adults, announced that it has received a $250,000 grant from Google.org for its Silicon
Valley site in San Jose.
The funding will support YUBA's
mission to close the Opportunity Divide in San Jose by providing young adults (ages
18-24, without college degrees) with in-demand technical and
professional skills training, internship experience, and college
credits.
"Empowering the young adults in our local communities to dream
big and pursue their passions as they begin their careers is
extremely important to us," stated Javier
Gonzalez, Google's South Bay Policy Lead. "Year Up has been
an invaluable partner in providing youth the tools they need to
succeed in the Bay Area and
beyond."
In 2019, Google is hosting 27 Year Up apprentices nationwide
(the highest number of Year Up apprentices Google has hosted in a
single year), including 11 young adults in San Jose. Apprentices in San Jose are working in Project Management,
Data Analytics, and IT/Helpdesk—on Google's Corporate Engineering
and REWS (Real Estate & Workplace Services) teams.
Year Up's training and internships have enabled thousands of
young adults to secure full time jobs. Eighty-one percent of recent
Silicon Valley graduates have secured full time or contract jobs,
with 54% hired by the company where they interned. These graduates
report average starting wages of $27.18/hour.
"Since we first launched our Silicon Valley site, Google has
been an ardent supporter of our work — providing apprenticeships
for students, collaborating on new approaches to skills training
and helping us expand our presence in San
Jose," said Emily Schaffer,
Executive Director of Year Up Bay Area. "With this grant, we will
be able to increase our impact further and connect even more young
adults in this city with companies in need of their talent."
One hundred Year Up graduates have been hired to work at Google
across the US since it began partnering with Year Up in 2009. In
2018, Google.org began offering scholarships to Year Up students to
complete the Google IT Support Professional Certificate on
Coursera, allowing them to prepare for IT Support Specialist roles
in less than six months. Year Up is also partnering with YouTube to
help create playlists and shape content for YouTube's new learning
channel.
"Year Up set me up for success, and through Google, I made the
most of my apprenticeship opportunity," said Pedro Rodriguez, a Year Up Alum who is now an IT
Resident at Google. "I worked closely with my apprenticeship
manager to identify where I could bring the most value to the team
as well as where I could challenge myself to grow. It's exciting to
see Google continue to invest in Year Up to benefit more young
professionals like myself and see young adults from my community
develop the skills and connections to succeed."
YUBA provides free job training
to young adults at campuses in San
Francisco, San Jose,
Menlo Park, and at Diablo Valley College. Students gain in-demand
technical and professional skills in the first six months, then
participate in a six-month apprenticeship at a top local company
like Google. Last summer, the federally-sponsored Pathways for
Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) evaluation of Year Up showed
a 53% increase in initial earnings for young adults randomly
assigned to Year Up compared with similar young adults in a control
group—the largest impacts on earnings reported to date for a
workforce program tested in a randomized controlled trial.
Since 2008, YUBA has served
more than 3,000 young people, creating a pipeline of diverse,
motivated talent for more than 50 of the region's leading
businesses in areas such as Project Management Support, IT
Helpdesk, Cyber Security, Quality Assurance and Data Analytics.
YUBA now serves more than 640
students annually, with 92% of graduates employed or attending
college within four months of completing the program, earning
average starting salaries of $55,000/year. Learn more about YUBA by visiting us on Facebook and
Twitter.
About Year Up
Year Up is an award-winning, national 501(c)3 organization that
enables motivated young adults ages 18-24 to move from minimum wage
to meaningful careers in just one year by providing the skills,
experience, and support they need to reach their full potential.
Through a one-year, intensive program, Year Up utilizes a
high-expectations, high-support model that combines marketable job
skills, stipends, coursework eligible for college credit, and
corporate internships at more than 250 top companies. Its holistic
approach focuses on students' professional and personal development
to enable young adults with a viable path to economic
self-sufficiency and meaningful careers. Year Up has served more
than 24,000 young adults since its founding in 2000, and will serve
more than 4,700 young adults in 2019 across 25 U.S. cities
including Arizona, Baltimore, Bay Area, Charlotte, Chicago,
Dallas/Fort Worth, Greater Atlanta, Greater Boston, Greater
Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, the National Capital
Region, New York City/Jersey City, Puget Sound, Rhode Island, South
Florida, Tampa Bay, and Wilmington. Year Up has been voted one of
the "Best Non-Profits to Work For" by by The NonProfit Times for
eight consecutive years, and rated a 4-star charity by Charity
Navigator for twelve consecutive years, placing them in the top 1%
of tracked organizations.
To learn more, visit http://www.yearup.org, and follow us on
LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter: @YearUp
About Google.org
Google.org, Google's philanthropy, supports nonprofits that
address humanitarian issues worldwide and apply scalable,
data-driven innovation to solving the world's biggest challenges.
We accelerate their progress by connecting them with a unique blend
of support that includes funding, products, and technical expertise
from Google volunteers. We engage with these believers-turned-doers
who make a significant impact on the communities they represent,
and whose work has the potential to produce meaningful change. We
want a world that works for everyone—and we believe technology and
innovation can move the needle in four key areas: education,
economic opportunity, inclusion and crisis response.
SOURCE Year Up