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New York University will give all its alumni free access to the Google AI Professional Certificate.
NYU is offering all 700,000+ alumni free access to the Google AI Professional Certificate.
KEY POINTS
Alumni can register for the program through a quick online process starting this summer.
The Google AI Professional Certificate earned a college credit recommendation from the American Council on Education.
NYU is the first major university to extend Google AI certificate access to both current students and alumni.
A NY Fed study found remote work, not AI, explains 64% of increased graduate unemployment post-pandemic.
New York University will give all its alumni free access to the Google AI Professional Certificate, providing them a means to upskill their AI capabilities anytime after they’ve left campus. The offer has the potential to reach more than 700,000 alumni, and it stands as a leading example of how universities can embrace lifelong education and career development as essential parts of their mission.
NYU, the largest private university in the U.S., already provides its current students access to the certificate program as part of its membership in the Google AI for Education Accelerator, which offers the AI Essentials Course plus a range of Google Career Certificates, including Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, Digital Marketing & E-commerce, IT Support, Project Management, and UX Design.
Now the university is extending availability to the AI professional certificate to former graduates as well. Alumni interested in participating in the free, online program will be able to apply through a quick registration process, beginning this summer.
“This is about skill-building. AI is changing the skills employers are looking for in the workplace. We want our alumni network to have the AI literacy needed in today’s marketplace so they can succeed on any path they choose,” said Linda G. Mills, President of NYU, in a press release.
“NYU’s relationship with our alumni continues long after they leave campus. This program offers a practical opportunity to impart specific skills and training for many graduates who came to NYU years before the advent of AI,” added Brian Perillo, Vice President of Alumni Relations at NYU.
Developed by Google experts and industry leaders, the AI Professional Certificate is taught entirely online through Coursera. Learners progress at their own pace through the seven-course sequence designed to build AI fluency, covering its fundamentals and skills such as vibe coding, content creation, data analysis, app building, and writing and communication.
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The sequence can typically be completed within six months. Recognized by a number of major employers, the certificate is one of the first AI programs to earn a college credit recommendation from the American Council on Education.
NYU’s offer is smart at several levels, simultaneously addressing some of the major issues confronting all universities at this particularly politically fraught and economically challenging time in their history.
It represents an effective form of outreach to alumni, carrying with it the potential to develop renewed connections with the institution and cultivate new financial donations.
It embraces competency-based education at a time when that learning model is enjoying increasing receptivity at even the nation’s most traditional and hide-bound institutions.
It helps address the problem that technological advances accelerate the rate at which certain areas of knowledge become obsolete.
It invests resources in life-long learning and career-education, both of which represent — as Arthur Levine and Scott Van Pelt suggest in their new book From Upheaval to Action: What Works in Higher Education — excellent opportunities for colleges and universities to grow their markets and strengthen their appeal to both learners and employers.
It demonstrates a continuing commitment to help update graduates who entered the workforce before AI became an expected skill in a wide range of industries.
Although the rapid rise of artificial intelligence has been cast as the big culprit responsible for a recent downturn in entry-level jobs for college graduates, a new study by New York Federal Reserve researchers suggests that the expansion of remote work may have had a larger impact on the difficulties graduates are encountering.
Comparing unemployment rates between inexperienced and more experienced employees across “remotable” jobs like software engineers and “non-remotable” occupations like nurses and mechanical engineers, the researchers found that remote work can explain 64 percent of the significant post-pandemic increase in unemployment among young graduates.
One reason for this trend is that remote work typically makes it harder for employers to train and mentor new employees. As a result, companies could be growing reluctant to hire less-experienced workers for remote work arrangements. NYU may have hit on a strategy that can help mitigate this problem — offer the necessary training and upskilling (in this case involving artificial intelligence) remotely as well.