Learning is free.
Finishing needs a table.
Signed up for Google's free AI certificate and stalled? Finish it in four evenings with the same small Boston group, free.
Circle #1BostonFour evenings
Your chair38,300 signed up. No one has published who finished.
Massachusetts made the Google AI Professional Certificate free in February 2026. By June, 38,300 residents had enrolled, most of them already employed and salaried. No completion count has been published.
Four evenings. Same faces. A finish line.
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Meet your group. Courses 1-2.
The same people every week. You pair with a check-in buddy who notices if life gets busy.
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Get unstuck in a lab. Courses 3-4.
First live lab, 75 minutes. Bring the exact exercise that stopped you, and catch your first AI mistake.
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Use it for real. Courses 5-6.
Second live lab, 75 minutes. Use AI on a real task from your job, or the job you want, without pasting private data.
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Finish. Courses 7-8.
Earn the Google certificate. Get your job work sample scored on a 12-point rubric. Leave with a reference.
Between evenings: about two hours of course a week on your own time, two office hours for whoever is stuck, and a buddy who checks in.
Google AI Professional Certificate: 8 short courses, about an hour each. $0 for Massachusetts residents through the MA AI Hub (normally $49/month).
- 01AI Fundamentals
- 02AI for Brainstorming & Planning
- 03AI for Research & Insights
- 04AI for Writing & Communicating
- 05AI for Content Creation
- 06AI for Data Analysis
- 07AI for App Building
- 08AI for App Deployment
Applied Job Task Work Sample (pass mark: 8 of 12 points with no zeros): Because skills-based hiring changed not even 1 in 700 hires (Harvard Business School & Burning Glass Institute, 2024), every finisher leaves with a 1-page scored work sample in their field (Medical Billing, Bookkeeping, Customer Support, Operations, or Retail Lead).
Six ways to pull up a chair.
Circle #1 needs more than learners. 65 founding seats across six roles, open until Dec 1, 2026 or until full. Founders are named only with permission, and seats never reopen under the same name.
- Learners30 seats Four evenings, plus about two hours of course a week The certificate, a scored work sample, a reference Join circle #1
- Educators12 seats One real problem a month A template you keep, peers who teach this too Join Staff Room
- Builders10 seats EdTech or a service, kept current A verified listing. Always free. Get listed
- Employers5 seats A promise to interview Finishers, with scored work samples Hire finishers
- Host sites5 seats A room and your learners A circle run with you, and a report for your funder Host a circle
- Backers3 seats $7,500 to fund one full circle of 30 Named on the first public report + receipt for every dollar Back a circle
$7,500 opens a circle.
Thirty neighbors, four evenings. Your name on the first public report and a receipt for every dollar. You never pick learners or see their data.
Or fund one tangible need: $240 for evening childcare or $300 for a 4-week loaner laptop.
Not ready for a circle? Start tonight on your own: a six-card starter deck, real Boston places, and a private course checklist.
Teach, counsel or buy training? There's a room for you.
This page is for learners. Educators and career centers have their own room. Company learning leaders have a separate, paid room run by a different organization.
Educators (Staff Room): for educators and career centers
Bring your learners to a four-week Finish Line cohort. Learners pay nothing; your program gets a completion count your funder accepts. Or join the free monthly 45-minute session with staff who teach AI too.
L&D leaders (Council): for 500-5,000 FTE firms
For L&D leaders at 500-5,000-person companies: a fixed-price audit of unused learning licenses, and a small peer council. Paid, run by TheWorkCompany, and it gets no learner data from this page.
Before you pull up a chair.
The questions people ask first. Something else? [email protected] reaches a person. Write in whatever language is easiest for you.
Who can join Circle #1?
Any adult in Massachusetts who wants to finish Google's AI Professional Certificate. The course is free for Massachusetts residents through the MA AI Hub. Circle #1 meets in Boston.
What happens after I email?
Free for learners, always. One email saves your chair. A person writes back, and the date and room go to the list first.
What does it cost me?
Nothing, now or later. The course is free through the state. The circle is paid for by backers and partner programs, never by learners.
I already signed up and stopped. Can I still come?
Yes. That's who the circle is for. Bring whatever course you're on. Nobody starts from zero unless they want to.
Do I need a laptop?
A phone is hard for the labs. If you don't have a laptop, say so in your email. Loaner laptops are lent for four weeks when backers fund them, so we can't promise one yet.
English isn't my first language. Is that OK?
Yes. Tell us your first language when you write. Coursera offers machine-translated subtitles, and in the labs we pair people who share a language wherever we can.
What if I miss an evening?
Tell your check-in buddy. Life happens. We'll help you catch up at the next evening instead of dropping you.
When and where does it meet?
Not set yet, and we won't make up a date. Everyone who emails gets the date and room first. Then it goes on this page.
Will this get me a job?
We can't promise that, and nobody has hiring data on this certificate yet. What you leave with: the certificate, a work sample scored on a published rubric, and a person who'll vouch for you.
What do you do with my email?
We use it to send you circle dates, and that's all. No analytics, no cookies, no trackers on this site, and learner records never go to sponsors or employers.
House rules, printed so you can hold us to them.
- No learner records leave the room.
- Sponsors can't pick learners, see their data, or buy placement.
- Nobody pays to be listed. Listed never means endorsed.
- Partners are named only with a signed agreement.
- Misses get published too.
- No analytics, no cookies, no trackers.
Read the honest bits: who runs this, who owns the name
ed.cafe is run by No Worker Left Behind, a Boston nonprofit (501(c)(3), EIN 88-3268312). The ed.cafe name is owned by TheWorkCompany, whose founder also serves NWLB, and lent to NWLB in writing.
The certificate on its own won't get you hired, and nobody has hiring data on it yet. A circle adds what it doesn't: a work sample, someone who'll vouch for you, and a reason to finish.
We're not the city, not MassHire, not Google, and not Edcafe AI. We point people to the official places and help them finish what those places offer.
No analytics, no cookies, no trackers, and no third-party fonts. Your chair and your checklist live only on your own device.
Lead training at a company? There's a separate paid Council run by a different, for-profit operator (TheWorkCompany). It gets no learner data or referrals from this page. See the Council.
Thirty chairs. One is yours.
Free for learners. One email saves your chair; the first evening's date and room go to the list first.
No email app? Write to [email protected] from any inbox.