"There are 150,000 open IT jobs in the U.S., and Google wants to make it easier to fill them." This doesn't specify what percentage of the open IT jobs are entry level, IT support/trouble shooting jobs.

The vague part: "will receive job seeking aid from Google/Coursera".

Can you please tell me where I can look at and apply for these jobs?

None of those scholarships apply to applicants outside the US. What happened to the "grow with Google", global, help everyone initiative?

I'm a Canadian. Google's offer to help US residents pay the $49 a month does not apply to Canadians. Is the Google office in Toronto or Kitchener interested in hiring Canadians to fill entry level IT support roles from graduates who take this certificate program? I checked using Google's jobs portal and did not see any open positions matching this criteria (Overlooked?) (Kitchener offices). This certificate program is pitched as an experiment, but my $392 or $490 is not an experiment. Based on today's exchange rate, $487 is what it takes to pay for 8 months of this program if the cost is $392 USD. It's not 'free'. Am I paying to participate in an experiment that doesn't lead to any realistic job prospect or does this certificate program actually go anywhere? Each US company has a different set of qualifications for their new hires and I have not seen "coursera certificate" as often as "Comptia A+". (In addition and not mentioned: 1) 160k salaries for Silicon Valley staff (Twitter) that can't afford San Francisco rent; 2) Offshoring; 3) The IT certification hell; 4) Trumps America and how the perspective for US companies hiring Canadians might be changing (Work visa, relocation expenses, etc.); 5) How this experiment benefits Google and Coursera more to help them achieve 'completion rates' with my cash in their pocket despite claims MOOC's would change the world with free access to education from top tier American universities; 6) And as another slashdot reader commented - does Google really want to enter the IT certification racket?; 7) Don't Silicon Valley workers live in trailer parks? But I'm optimistic if this certificate could lead to some virtual assisting job. Dunno. Thoughts?