About

The brief

Google.org has set 2026 to 2028 North Star Goals across its four pillars. The Global Programs pillar holds the Apprenticeship goal, to advance economic and workforce development through expanding technology-focused apprenticeships and access to job-ready skills and meaningful opportunities. It commissioned this research to make that goal measurable.

The problem. Google.org's influence on the wider apprenticeship ecosystem is not yet measured. Its current metrics describe the health of Google-run programs, completion rates, apprentice confidence, placement outcomes, but they say nothing about whether Google.org's grantmaking, research, and field engagement caused other organizations to start or scale apprenticeships. The expand access half of the goal therefore has no validated way to be counted, and contributions risk being represented anecdotally rather than rigorously.

Three research objectives

1. Develop high-fidelity metrics, targets, and methodology that quantify the scale and quality of apprenticeship opportunities created through Google.org's ecosystem influence and investments.
2. Write the recommendations to also account for apprenticeship grants made by other Google.org pillars, not only Global Programs initiatives.
3. Build a methodology that handles regional variation in how apprenticeships are structured while holding a defensible global reporting standard.

Four deliverables

1. Metric recommendations. A technical document setting out the prioritized metrics and the attribution logic behind them.
2. Target-setting report. An evidence-based proposal for three-year targets on the top selected metrics.
3. Measurement operational plan. A guide to data sources, collection frequency, and aggregation method.
4. Executive summary and presentation. A shareable summary of the final measurement approach for Google.org leadership.

The proposal

Social Return Advisory proposed an attribution-led measurement framework that separates Google-run program outcomes from ecosystem-influenced outcomes and counts each on its own terms. The approach pairs a net attributed headcount measure with an influence index and a structured narrative layer, so that scale, quality, and credibility of contribution are all reported against defensible three-year targets.