IVMF Awarded $3.5M Grant From Google to Train Veterans, Military-Connected Spouses on Cybersecurity and AI
Syracuse University’s D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) received a $3.5 million grant from Google to help train our nation’s transitioning service members, veterans and military-connected spouses on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence topics.

The funding, part of Google’s $75 million AI Opportunity Fund, will provide free access to Google’s AI Essentials Course and the Google cybersecurity certificate to Onward to Opportunity (O2O) participants. The IVMF is one of the fund’s first recipients.

“We’re excited to partner with Google on this new initiative, which will help make AI training universally accessible throughout the country. With this new Google AI Essentials Course, we are confident that we can arm veterans and military spouses with the training and skills necessary to begin to leverage the technology and put it to use in their career,” said J. Michael Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation and the executive director of the IVMF, at a press conference today in Washington, D.C.

Over the next three years, the goal is to train transitioning service members, veterans and military-connected spouses on how to best leverage and incorporate AI into their daily lives.

“AI offers significant opportunities to accelerate economic growth, particularly if people have access to the right resources and training,” said James Manyika, senior vice president for research, technology and society at Google. “Google.org’s new AI Opportunity Fund and Google’s AI Essentials Course are important next steps in our commitment to ensure everyone, everywhere can access AI training. No single employer or policymaker will be able to modernize workforce programs on their own—we are committed to collaborating across industry, civil society and government to ensure the opportunities created by new technologies are available to everyone.”

Haynie said the IVMF team provides training, education and technical assistance to more than 20,000 service members, veterans and military-connected family members annually. Recently, Haynie said one of the most asked about questions from the veteran community involved ways to learn more about AI and its everyday uses.

This grant from Google addresses both a specific need for veterans and a specific gap in training nationwide, as only half of workers have access to sufficient AI training opportunities, according to the World Economic Forum.

“We’ve found that military veterans are eager to embrace the technology in their professional life to increase productivity, whether while running their own small business or working for one of America’s employers. We were working to find the right answer for them, but with an increasingly crowded marketplace of resources and training it was difficult to identify the right opportunity…enter our friends at Google. This training will have a lasting impact on veterans and military spouses,” Haynie said of Google.org, which has supported IVMF with its efforts of preparing transitioning service members, veterans and military spouses to bring their skills to civilian careers since 2013.

According to Google, its online AI Essentials course, taught by the tech giant’s industry experts, will train people to use generative AI effectively in their day-to-day work. Participants will receive practical, hands-on experience with AI—including best practices and how to responsibly use AI—and those who complete the course will earn a certificate from Google to share with their network and with potential employers. The course normally costs $49 per person, but thanks to this grant, IVMF participants can learn these skills at no cost.