In 2021, Pew Research found that a measly 37.9% of Americans have a college degree.
For decades, the expectation has been that life after high school includes graduating from a four-year degree program and entering the relevant work field.
In discussion with the Future of Work Podcast by Allwork.Space, Grow With Google’s founder Lisa Gevelber is challenging the idea that college means well-paying jobs.

In 2021, Pew Research found that a measly 37.9% of Americans have a college degree.

The old adage that education doesn’t guarantee success seems nice in theory, but the reality is that those with a four-year degree typically have higher salaries than those without degrees.

As a result, workers who didn’t have the privilege of higher education experience discrepancies in salary, career level and skills access. However, a new initiative from Google is seeking to tear down these norms.

In discussion with the Future of Work Podcast by Allwork.Space, Grow With Google’s founder Lisa Gevelber is challenging the idea that college results in well-paying jobs.

Societal Hurdles

For decades, the expectation has been that life after high school includes entering a four-year degree program, graduating, and then entering the relevant work field, but not everyone has hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on an education.

Even with the aid of student loans, the burden of college expenses often leads people to immediately enter the workforce after high school, often beginning in low-paying positions. 

This societal expectation of higher education leads many to think that these professionals deserve to be paid less, since they did not seek additional education in a traditional setting.

But Gevelber believes it doesn’t have to be this way.

“Seventy-seven percent of jobs that pay more than $35,000 a year say they require a college degree…two-thirds of Americans don’t have a college degree,” said Gevelber. “That’s about 80 million Americans who would be locked out of those jobs.”

Grow With Google

Due to this common trajectory for workers, many are left without the skills to advance their careers in high-paying industries, such as tech and finance.

That’s what led to the launch of Grow With Google — an initiative that provides the proper skills courses to help those without college degrees fill the gaps in job availability among higher-paying positions.

Not only is it the prime time for workers to expand their skill set, but continuous economic advancements also require it.

“If you look at the World Economic Forum data, it actually says that 50% of us are going to need to reskill over the next few years,” said Gevelber. “So that might sound like a scary number, but actually I think it’s a really big opportunity if most of us need to find a way to enhance our skills.”

In order to address this discrepancy, Grow With Google offers a variety of programs “that help people with digital skills.” By doing so, the belief that education equals career success can officially be demolished.

It’s not just limited to one type of career, either. Gevelber says that Google’s career certificate program allows workers, regardless of their educational background or work experience, to tap into the world of in-demand, high-growth, high-paying career fields.

“[We] teach people to become data analysts or IT support specialists or user experience designers, project managers or e-commerce and digital marketing managers as well.”

In order to ensure that participants are fully prepared to enter a specific field after completing the program, Gevelber says Grow With Google will:

Flesh out the skills needed for the job
Vet those skills and the curriculum
Incorporate over 100 assessments per certificate
Require participants to pass all assessments with 80% or higher to earn the certificate

Career Success From all Corners of Life

Perhaps the biggest perk of this initiative is the opportunities that are extended to professionals who come from diverse backgrounds: those without a traditional education, working parents, and everyone in between.

In short, Grow With Google and similar programs allow good-paying jobs to not be gatekept.

“[We] made a high-quality industry recognized credential and we made it on-demand, which is important because most people don’t have the luxury of doing a bootcamp, sitting in a classroom all day, or even taking classes on a regular schedule,” said Gevelber. 