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Meti Kebede says a new certificate program could give her a leg up in her upcoming job hunt.

A December 2023 graduate in data science with a concentration in biology, Kebede is the first UTA student to complete the Power Up + Tech Up Google Career Certificate program. She says the certificate taught her how to look deeper at data, including visualizing and analyzing, which is what she wants to do in the health care field.

“The certificate takes students deeper into what they’ll need in a job,” Kebede says.

Google Career Certificates equip people with job-ready skills in several tech-related fields, including data analytics and project management.

The certificates are available to transfer students at UTA through the University’s Power Up + Tech Up program, which has more than 100 students in its pilot study.

“We call it Power Up + Tech Up because this program empowers students from all over the campus to be prepared for the workforce with a combination of technical skills from the certification and 21st century skills like teamwork and leadership,” says Robin Macaluso, faculty fellow in the Provost’s Office and chemistry professor.

It is also part of a larger partnership between the University of Texas System and Google that will award certificates to 10,000 system students across eight universities.