“His father advised him to find a career, but nothing he studied seemed to offer a long-term future. Then, early in the pandemic, Gage, 25, realized he couldn’t keep working at a big-box retailer. Searching online, he came across a nonprofit career-development organization called Merit America.
Through Merit America, students can get online technical training and earn industry certifications from Google in a handful of high-tech fields, augmenting the coursework with academic counseling and career coaching to help them stay on track. Gage earned a certificate in information-technology support, and today he works for Cisco, troubleshooting technology issues for customers.”