Official Google Canada Blog

Creating an onramp to jobs in Canada with Google Career Certificates

Monday, May 17, 2021

I recently ‘sat down,’ (virtually on Google Meet, of course) with four graduates of our Google Career Certificate pilot with NPower Canada, a Google.org grantee. One learner had worked in the restaurant industry for years, but when COVID hit he needed to make a quick career shift, so he enrolled in the Google IT Professional certificate. In less than a year, he’s now an IT specialist at Toronto-based software company TouchBistro, where he brings his passion for the hospitality industry to a company that develops point of sale systems used by restaurants around the world.

Although every graduate I spoke with had a different story to share, they all had one thing in common. Their lives had been disrupted over the last year in one way or another, but enrolling in these programs gave them a much needed purpose amidst a very difficult time. And it also opened up a window of opportunity to make a successful career transition - 83% of youth who graduated in September 2020 are now employed or in a new education program.

Throughout the pandemic, unemployment rates have climbed, but rates among visible minority groups and youth ages 15-24 continue to be some of the highest. To recover, we need to invest in skills training in fields with demonstrable demand, and ensure our programs are reaching the communities that have felt the toughest economic impacts of the pandemic. That’s why today we’re committing $2 million to reskill job seekers for new careers in technology in under six months. This support includes a three-year Google.org grant to NPower Canada to deliver Google Career Certificate programs and to deploy 5,000 need-based scholarships to access the program.

Google Career Certificates prepare job seekers for new, high-demand careers in growing sectors in under six months, with no degree or relevant experience required. This format helps break down barriers and create opportunities for underserved groups trying to enter the tech workforce. They’re available in Data Analytics, Project Management, UX Design and IT Support. And there’s a demand in Canada’s job market to fill these roles. According to Glassdoor, these four fields currently have more than 22,000 job openings across the country.

The 5,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships will be distributed through NPower Canada, in collaboration with referral partners like Pathways to Education, Toronto Public Library and the YMCA. To further support these initiatives, Google Canada will provide the non-profits with additional funds to improve existing job training programs.

To help create onramps to jobs, we’re also introducing a Google Career Certificate Employer Consortium for the scholarship graduates. The Employer Consortium is a group of employers, including Google, KPMG, TELUS and Loblaw, who will consider graduates of NPower Canada’s Google Career Certificate programs for eligible roles. For employers interested in connecting with skilled candidates and growing their talent pipeline, join the Google Career Certificate Employer Consortium by visiting g.co/grow/employers.

The pandemic has served as a stress test for all of us. As hard as it’s been, it’s also shown us how resourceful and resilient we can be. As we look towards Canada’s economic recovery, making sure job seekers have the skills to match workforce demands will be crucial. No matter what the future throws at us, we’re here to help. For more information on the Google Career Certificates visit g.co/certificates-canada. To find out more information about the scholarships visit NPower Canada’s website.

About Google Career Certificates: The Google Career Certificates were developed by Googlers as part of Grow with Google, a global initiative designed to create economic opportunities. The certificate programs are available in Data Analytics, Project Management, UX Design, IT Support. Outside of NPower Canada’s programming, the certificates are delivered through the online learning platform Coursera and are available in English, with select availability in French starting in 2022.
Posted by Sabrina Geremia, VP & Country Manager, Google Canada

Get back to what you love: helping Canadians learn why, where and when you can get vaccinated

Thursday, May 13, 2021

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Supporting vaccine education on YouTube Just like how I turned to YouTube to find reliable information about the difference between vaccines, many people around the world are doing the same. In fact, over 70% of Canadians say they turn to YouTube to gather information and knowledge (Watchtime Canada).

At the start of the pandemic last year, we invited Dr. Howard Njoo, Deputy Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, to answer the top questions about COVID-19 from some of Canada’s top YouTube creators. Now that a number of vaccines have been approved by health authorities around the world, including Health Canada, the focus has shifted to ensuring as many people as possible actually get vaccinated when it is offered.

That’s why we’ve teamed up with the Public Health Agency of Canada once again, this time to help answer Canada’s top questions about the vaccine with the help of Canadian YouTube creators. YouTube Creator Brandon Gonez sat down with Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, for a candid conversation and Dr. Njoo will return to speak with Montreal-based Creator Jay Machalani for an interview where together they will field questions from Jay’s community. The videos address a number of questions from ‘what differentiates an mRNA and viral-vector based COVID vaccine?’ to ‘can I travel after getting the COVID vaccine?’

Finding vaccination centres on Search and Maps In Canada, this past month, search interest in "vaccine near me" increased by over 10x and reached a record high as more people across the country became eligible.

With vaccine rollout really starting to ramp up here, we’re once again working hard to provide Canadians with accurate information about vaccination facts and locations from coast to coast. Today, we’re introducing a feature which can help Canadians easily find vaccination sites near them, even faster in Search and Maps.

All you have to do is type “COVID-19 vaccine” in either Search or Maps and the nearest vaccination locations around you will pop up. We’ll include details like whether an appointment or referral is required or if access is limited to specific groups.

We’re working with partners like Montreal-based Clinia Health and other authoritative sources, such as government agencies and retail pharmacies, to gather vaccination location information and make it available to all.

To help people stay up to date on the global vaccine roll out, we’ve also updated our features in Search to surface information on vaccine efficacy, side effects, priority groups, statistics and the latest COVID-19 related news. Simply type COVID-19 along with the province you are in to access this information. And, if you’re looking for a quick overview of locally relevant, timely and authoritative COVID-related updates, information panels continue to be a great resource for Canadians.

Getting back to what we love Last year, we saw how digital tools played a critical role in helping us continue to learn, work and stay connected. These same tools will now help with COVID-19 recovery.

As we look towards the future, and prepare to reunite in shared spaces, rebuild a healthy society, and stimulate a thriving economy, there is much to look forward to. In the meantime, our goal is to help Canadians stay informed on what we can all do to get us there. That includes listening to the experts urging us to get vaccinated. Building confidence and trust in vaccines will be an essential part of getting us back to who and what we love.
Posted by Sabrina Geremia, vice president & country manager, Google Canada

Google’s ongoing commitment to Québec

Monday, May 10, 2021

To read this blog post in French, please click here.

Today we are announcing our intention to acquire property in Beauharnois, Québec. Upon completion of various conditions and receipt of government approvals, Google will be able to use the property for a future data center facility.

This will be an important addition to our long-standing presence in Québec. We planted roots in the province in 2004, with our first downtown Montréal office and only three employees. Nearly two decades later, our new Viger office space will have capacity to welcome up to 1000 employees when construction is complete. We look forward to welcoming back our Montréal-based software developers, world class cybersecurity team, sales, Chrome and Cloud experts, as well as our AI researchers.

Our support of digital innovation in Québec doesn’t stop at our own offices. Google Canada has been a long-time partner in the world-leading artificial intelligence ecosystem in Montréal. Just last fall, we renewed our relationship with Mila - the research institute with the largest concentration of deep learning academic researchers in the world. In addition to collaborating on research projects, Google has donated 3 million USD over three years, to fuel the important work Mila does, for the benefit of all Canadians.

By 2030, we aim to run our entire business on clean electricity every hour of every day. As one of the world’s largest producers of hydropower, Québec is an important region for helping us achieve this ambitious sustainability goal.

“I am very proud to announce today a future major project for the region. Here, in Beauharnois, once the proposed project commences, it is estimated to generate well-paid jobs, both during construction and in the operation of the future data center. The growth of a company the scale of Google in Québec confirms our status as one of the world’s most dynamic and greenest technology hubs,” said Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Economy and Innovation.

Based on industry standards for data center builds and our own experience, once construction begins on a data center, that construction phase at its peak can provide work for 300-500 people and ultimately an operational data center can employ dozens of people, at least 20-30 in skilled roles. And upon completion of all necessary conditions and receipt of government approvals for this specific site, and in line with similar investments we have made elsewhere in North America, we anticipate our initial investment for the new data center would be around $735 million CAD ($600 million USD).

Every day, demand for Google services is increasing and our physical infrastructure follows the same rhythm. Once acquired, this site in Beauharnois will ensure we have options to expand our data center infrastructure into Canada, when our business requires it.

Celebrating Canadian Googlers: Meet Matt Teskey

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Editor's Note: To celebrate Google Canada’s 20th Anniversary, we're profiling some of the powerful, dynamic and creative Canadians at Google.

When the COVID-19 pandemic increased, Matt Teskey not only jumped at the opportunity to serve his community through Google, but also alongside his family. As a Program Manager for Firebase, Matt describes his role as bringing order from chaos and so it’s not surprising that during a time of uncertainty, Matt saw an opportunity to help others.

What started as a fun activity for Matt to do with his wife and kids, quickly evolved to a local virtual scavenger hunt enjoyed by many across the Waterloo region. Leveraging Google Forms, Matt’s creativity saw no bounds, and the response from local educators, friends and community members has been overwhelming, with several inspired to create their own versions!

Matt has also spearheaded an initiative to match Canadian nonprofits with Google volunteers to provide support for the collaboration and video conferencing tools in Google Workspace for Nonprofits. This program has evolved over the past 12 months and, merged with other related initiatives, has helped hundreds of Canadian nonprofits, and is always looking for additional nonprofits to support.

We recently sat down with Matt to learn more about the creative way he’s keeping his family and community connected.

How would you describe your job at a dinner party to people who don't work in tech?
I work on Firebase, Google’s mobile platform for app developers, and my role as a program manager is to enable our teams to be successful as we build, release and support our software. I bring order from chaos and spend a lot of time getting people and tools organized and effective.

What advice do you have for somebody looking to pursue a career in tech?
I would say to get involved, explore different areas as much as you can. There are so many tools at your disposal, whether it’s social media and graphic design classes or coding. There is an opportunity to get really creative with a combination of school, volunteering and free online learning. Through volunteering, I learned a lot about organization and tools, which helped my entry into the tech space.

I also think relationships are key. Get outside of your comfort zone, meet new people, foster and nurture new relationships. This can feel intimidating, but it can be as simple as getting involved in your community, joining different groups, connecting with like-minded people.

In addition to your role, you also have been very involved in giving back. Can you tell us a bit about your work with Google’s 20 percent project time?
One of the amazing things at Google is that employees are encouraged to get involved in projects and initiatives outside of their day-to-day roles. Personally, I’m always looking for ways to work with Googlers outside of my teams — I’ve helped run office-wide innovation programs in the past, and in 2020 I initiated a program to give 1:1 support to Canadian nonprofits via our Google for Nonprofits offerings.

Through this 20 percent project, it’s been a great way to serve the community, and the need for additional help and resources has been more important than ever. Initially, we thought our focus would be on helping with Google Ads Grants and putting together classes to promote and educate nonprofits on these offerings with Google. Once COVID hit, we started to see a lot of people and organizations struggling with how to adapt to online tools and video calls and saw an opportunity to pivot our outreach to focus on Google Workspace and how to use the free tools like Docs and Meet. The need to support nonprofits has grown tremendously. We've been able to work with Googlers across our Candian offices to extend our reach further and directly support nonprofits across the country and are always looking for more.

When you work at Google, it’s pretty easy to be inspired by the nonprofit work put in place by past Googlers, and it makes you want to build on top of that. I don’t know another company that gives its employees that opportunity to make such an impact.

How was the transition to working from home?
Well, at the start of COVID, everyone was locked down and struggling with work from home setups and how to stay connected. Working at Google, I had a really easy transition into work from home thanks to a good desk and technical setup and lots of experience working with teammates across North America through video conferencing and collaborative docs. My wife is a teacher, and my kids were schooling from home, so we were all here and just sort of figuring it out. I think we jumped right into a mindset of ‘this will be going on for a long time, so we better figure out how to stay connected and stay entertained.’

While working from home, I set up Google Meet video calls with my friends and family and do virtual game nights and virtual escape rooms. As I searched for fun activities online, I clicked into a Harry Potter-themed escape room and realized it was built using Google Forms. I connected with the author of the escape room, who shared an instruction video with me. My family and I decided to make one together. We started by designing some clues, then we went around our community and took pictures. We basically built a scavenger hunt in Google Forms in a day or two.

Did you know the scavenger hunt would gain so much traction?
It really started out as a fun activity my family could do together! When we first decided to make this, we knew people were adjusting to life at home, and many people were looking for creative, fun and free things to do with their kids. I was inspired by a virtual escape room and thought this is interesting and something that could be adapted for a scavenger hunt. My wife is an elementary school teacher, I’m a recent Cub Scout leader, and so we thought this would be a great resource to leverage and also share with our kids’ classmates. I’m happy to see so many other people using it and having fun while doing it!

What has the response been from the community?
It's been really great! A few of my teacher friends were inspired to build their own — one in particular is a geography teacher, so I helped him curate one for his class. He changed the pictures, the clues, and suddenly it turned into a cross Canada adventure for their geography class!

I check online every once and a while, and we've heard from a few hundred families. The comments are always very positive, with people expressing gratitude for the half an hour or hour of escape that the game offered. Others leave comments requesting that we make another one with a specific theme in mind or for a different city.

Now that we’re back in lockdown, do you have any plans to make another one?
Yeah, I’ve definitely thought about it. We thought about it being more tied in with my wife and son’s school, or maybe something with the surrounding towns. The kids also want to do something with theme parks or virtual travel destinations. We’ll probably build another one at some point, but it’s also really cool to see other people be inspired by our idea and develop their own.

Applications are now open for the first Google Cloud Accelerator Canada

Friday, April 30, 2021

Applications are now open for Canada’s first accelerator, entirely dedicated to cloud-native technology startups. We’re inviting up to twelve Canadian startups to participate in an intensive 10-week virtual bootcamp to prepare them for their next phase of growth.

The past year has shown us the critical role cloud technologies play, for businesses, governments, nonprofits and consumers. Throughout the pandemic, cloud technologies helped organizations across the globe navigate uncertainty -- from healthcare systems shifting care models, government agencies looking to serve communities and ward off economic hardships, consumer goods and media companies adapting to dramatic shifts in consumer behaviour, and others supporting remote workforces while maintaining business continuity and uptime of their mission-critical systems.

Think about grocery click and collect. In the early days of the pandemic, getting a grocery click and collect slot was similar to trying to purchase seats for a Toronto Raptors playoff game, or snag tickets to a Hamilton performance on Broadway. As online traffic for grocery skyrocketed, grocery stores across the country needed a way to meet the demand. Our own Google Cloud team quickly worked with Loblaws to create a dedicated task force with its digital technology team to pack and fulfill orders faster so they could meet the growing demand.

Today, we’re excited to announce that applications are open for the first-ever Google Cloud Accelerator Canada. This 10-week virtual accelerator program is designed to bring the best of Google's programs, products, people and technology to startups doing interesting work in the cloud. In addition to cloud mentorship and technical project support, the accelerator also includes deep dives and workshops focused on product design, customer acquisition and leadership development for startup founders and leaders.

The accelerator program is best suited for funded, revenue generating startups who have a minimum of five employees and are well-positioned for their next phase of growth. In order to ensure Google can provide meaningful value, startups should aim to leverage either Cloud or AI/ML technologies in their product, service, or operations or show an interest in leveraging these technologies in the future. The inaugural Google Cloud Accelerator Canada cohort will kick off in July 2021 and run for 10 weeks. The first cohort will consist of 8-12 innovative cloud-native technology startups in Canada.

If your startup is leveraging the cloud to drive growth and innovation, make sure you apply for Canada’s first Google Cloud Accelerator by May 28, 2021 - we’re excited to hear from you.

Posted by Ashley Francisco Head of Startup Developer Ecosystem, Google Canada

Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

Thursday, April 15, 2021

For the past 15 years, billions of people have turned to Google Earth to explore our planet from endless vantage points. You might have peeked at Mount Everest or flown through your hometown. Since launching Google Earth, we've focused on creating a 3D replica of the world that reflects our planet in magnificent detail with features that both entertain and empower everyone to create positive change.

In the biggest update to Google Earth since 2017, you can now see our planet in an entirely new dimension — time. With Timelapse in Google Earth, 24 million satellite photos from the past 37 years have been compiled into an interactive 4D experience. Now anyone can watch time unfold and witness nearly four decades of planetary change.

Our planet has seen rapid environmental change in the past half-century — more than any other point in human history. Many of us have experienced these changes in our own communities; I myself was among the thousands of Californians evacuated from their homes during the state’s wildfires last year. For other people, the effects of climate change feel abstract and far away, like melting ice caps and receding glaciers. With Timelapse in Google Earth, we have a clearer picture of our changing planet right at our fingertips — one that shows not just problems but also solutions, as well as mesmerizingly beautiful natural phenomena that unfold over decades.

To explore Timelapse in Google Earth, go to g.co/Timelapse — you can use the handy search bar to choose any place on the planet where you want to see time in motion.

Or open Google Earth and click on the ship’s wheel to find Timelapse in our storytelling platform, Voyager, to see interactive guided tours. We’ve also uploaded more than 800 Timelapse videos in both 2D and 3D for public use at g.co/TimelapseVideos. You can select any video you want as a ready-to-use MP4 video or sit back and watch the videos on YouTube. From governments and researchers to publishers, teachers and advocates, we’re excited to see how people will use Timelapse in Google Earth to shine a light on our planet.

See the difference the Suruí people have made through their protection of the Amazon rainforest they call home in Rondônia, Brazil.

Watch agriculture take shape in the middle of a desert in Al Jowf, Saudi Arabia.

Follow the expansion of Las Vegas, Nevada.

See what’s changed in Kuwait City, Kuwait.

Understand the causes of Earth’s change We worked with experts at Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab to create the technology behind Timelapse, and we worked with them again to make sense of what we were seeing.

As we looked at what was happening, five themes emerged: forest change, urban growth, warming temperatures, sources of energy, and our world’s fragile beauty. Google Earth takes you on a guided tour of each topic to better understand them.

Timelapse in Google Earth shows the rapid change on our planet in context through five thematic stories, for example the retreat of the Columbia Glacier in Alaska.

Putting time on Earth in the palm of our hand Making a planet-sized timelapse video required a significant amount of what we call “pixel crunching” in Earth Engine, Google's cloud platform for geospatial analysis. To add animated Timelapse imagery to Google Earth, we gathered more than 24 million satellite images from 1984 to 2020, representing quadrillions of pixels. It took more than two million processing hours across thousands of machines in Google Cloud to compile 20 petabytes of satellite imagery into a single 4.4 terapixel-sized video mosaic — that’s the equivalent of 530,000 videos in 4K resolution! And all this computing was done inside our carbon-neutral, 100% renewable energy-matched data centers, which are part of our commitments to help build a carbon-free future.

As far as we know, Timelapse in Google Earth is the largest video on the planet, of our planet. And creating it required out-of-this-world collaboration. This work was possible because of the U.S. government and European Union’s commitments to open and accessible data. Not to mention their herculean efforts to launch rockets, rovers, satellites and astronauts into space in the spirit of knowledge and exploration. Timelapse in Google Earth simply wouldn’t have been possible without NASA and the United States Geological Survey’s Landsat program, the world’s first (and longest-running) civilian Earth observation program, and the European Union’s Copernicus program with its Sentinel satellites.

An inside look at Google Earth. With mountains, valleys, buildings and more, Timelapse videos are draped over our planet using advanced 3D graphics rendering techniques. At any given moment, the correct videos for your location, view angle and zoom-level are seamlessly stitched together on the fly to compose Timelapse in Google Earth, updated as you pan, zoom and explore.

24 million satellite images from 1984 to 2020 were analyzed, and we identified and removed artifacts in the imagery, like clouds. We then computed a single representative pixel for every location on the planet, and for every year from 1984-2020 to produce our global, cloud-free Timelapse experience.

Timelapse also reveals beautiful natural geologic processes, such as the beach sands of Cape Cod slowly shifting south. This footprint of time is captured in our featured locations collection, “Mesmerizing Changes.”

What will you do with Timelapse? We invite anyone to take Timelapse into their own hands and share it with others — whether you’re marveling at changing coastlines, following the growth of megacities, or tracking deforestation. Timelapse in Google Earth is about zooming out to assess the health and well-being of our only home, and is a tool that can educate and inspire action.

Visual evidence can cut to the core of the debate in a way that words cannot and communicate complex issues to everyone. Take for example the work of Liza Goldberg who plans to use Timelapse imagery to teach climate change. Or the 2020 award-winning documentary “Nature Now” that uses satellite imagery to show humanity’s growing footprint on the planet.

Timelapse for the next decade to come In collaboration with our partners, we’ll update Google Earth annually with new Timelapse imagery throughout the next decade. We hope that this perspective of the planet will ground debates, encourage discovery and shift perspectives about some of our most pressing global issues.
Posted by Rebecca Moore, Director, Google Earth, Earth Engine & Outreach

Celebrating Canadian Googlers: Meet Natasha Walji

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Editor's Note: To celebrate Google Canada’s 20th Anniversary, we're profiling some of the powerful, dynamic and creative Canadians at Google.

How would you describe your job at a dinner party to people who don't work in tech? Was there something or someone specific that pushed you toward your career in tech? He sounds like an amazing mentor! What was your experience like when you studied computer science, were there a lot of women exploring it? One of the amazing things about Google, is that we’re encouraged to go beyond our role with 20 percent projects. Can you tell us about what this looks like for you? Absolutely! Giving back is something that I’m very passionate about. I’ve been serving the community for over 20 years. It’s always been a big part of my life, which was in large part because of my family history of service and because of the mentor that I had in high school. After I got better at math, he shared something very profound with me one day, he said: ‘I want you to think about how you are going to use your education and knowledge to serve others.’ This really resonated and gave me a strong sense of purpose and inspiration from a young age. So when I joined Google, I knew I had found my soulmate company because Google has an incredible impact on serving the world through accessible information; it also continues to inspire me 10+ years later because I lead impactful work fueling our economy and also have the chance to give back to the community.

Google encourages us to explore projects outside of our specific function — this is the famous “20-percent time” concept of our company's innovation culture. Currently, I spend a percentage of my time as the Executive Sponsor for volunteering projects in Canada. I’m really passionate about this, and when COVID-19 started to impact the Canadian economy, a small group of Googlers started to think about who’s helping the organizations that help Canada’s most vulnerable people. The need was greater than before and with the help of 120+ Googler volunteers across our Canadian offices, we hit the ground running and created an infrastructure to support nonprofits during the pandemic through Google for Nonprofits. Many Canadian nonprofits were unaware of free tools, resources, and free Google Ads that are available through this program, so we’ve been focused on getting them setup to tap into these benefits.

One of the things that I love about the people I work with is that Googlers are helpful, willing to give back, and always raising their hands to get involved.

What advice would you give to women pursuing a career in technology?
Stay curious and be open to what technology can bring, experiment and don’t be afraid to try new things! Technology has the potential to solve many world problems at scale and representation matters.

For me, I didn’t always know what my career would look like. I firmly believe that my mentor changed this for me and helped me understand the possibilities. I would encourage women and young girls to seek mentorship, surround yourself with people that support and inspire you.

When you speak about your work and the tech industry, you light up, you can see there’s a lot of passion, what do you love most about working in tech? So many things! Technology is not only fun, but it can also be used to solve so many problems, it’s endless. The skills you learn in tech are transferable, no matter what you do — this is why I think exploring STEM at a young age is really valuable.

I always tell young adults, if you can’t major in computer science at least minor in it. All industries are being transformed by technology, so it’s an important set of skills to have in your tool box for the future.

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