400k South Africans participate in Microsoft skills initiative

400k South Africans participate in Microsoft skills initiative

Microsoft skills initiative

Four hundred thousand people in South Africa have participated in the Microsoft Global Skills initiative. A Digital skills initiative that seeks to help participants gain in-demand skills to become employable. This shows an increase from the three hundred thousand shared in March this year.

Lillian Barnard, Managing Director, Microsoft South Africa details this at the launch event of the Nedbank DigiSkills online platform. Another strategic partnership with a private sector organization to extend the reach of digital skills to more South Africans.

Extending access to these learning paths, skills and tools come at a critical time for South Africa, says Lillian Barnard. Noting a declining economy and unemployment remain a mounting and widespread challenge in the country.

Even though the skills program has exceeded its initial goal of reaching 25 million learners, only over a million of those come from Africa. With South Africa having the most participants. Microsoft mentioned partnering with other organizations and governments as one of the many ways to change this. And offering additional funding and services where necessary.

These partnerships have been fundamental to scale programmes that help more people gain the critical future skills needed in the digital economy. We are committed to collaborating with partners such as Nedbank and Afrika Tikkun to provide the training, tools and platforms to boost employability and economic growth.

Lillian Barnard

Lillian believes digital skills are the most effective way to drive economic recovery in South Africa. Noting it is a priority for Microsoft to create opportunities that will enable and empower unemployed South Africans. Microsoft has provided $150000 in grants to the youth development NPO to extend the reach of the Microsoft Skills Initiative programme in South Africa.

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1.1M Africans acquire digital skills during COVID-19

1.1M Africans acquire digital skills during COVID-19

Microsoft is announcing it has helped over 30 million people in 249 countries and territories acquire digital skills. Out of this, over one million learners across Africa participated in the Microsoft Global Skills program.

The global skills initiative offers free online courses across Microsoft, LinkedIn, and GitHub learning platforms. It seeks to help people, mostly those affected by the pandemic gain in-demand skills to be employable.

Across the Middle East and Africa region, 2.1 million learners have participated in the program. With software development, customer service, project manager and data analysis being the popular learning paths among learners.

The top 10 countries with learners across Africa are South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Comoros, Sao tome and Principe, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Seychelles and the Central African Republic are countries with less than 500 learners.

To get more Africans to acquire digital skills, Microsoft is also partnering with organizations and governments. Offering additional funding and services to make this possible where this is necessary.

Microsoft is extending the free LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft Learn courses and low-cost certifications that align to 10 of the most in-demand jobs offer through 2021.

Just seeing this opportunity, click to find out more and take advantage of the free courses from Microsoft.

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30 million learners participate in the free Microsoft digital skills initiative

30 million learners participate in the free Microsoft digital skills initiative

Over 30.7 million people across the globe have participated in the free Microsoft global digital skills initiative. The company says this sharing an update on the initiative’s progress nine months on.

An increase from the 10 million reached in September last year and surpasses the planned target of 25 million. It also sees the number of participating countries increased from 231 countries and territories to 249.

The United States, India, Brazil, United Kingdom, Mexico, Poland, France, Germany, Canada and Spain account for the to 10 countries with learners.

Microsoft says it is ready to launch the next phase of the project after learning from it. The next phase will see Microsoft help 250,000 companies make a skills-based hire in 2021.

The company announced the Global Skills initiative program at a time when the world was grappling with a pandemic that saw millions of lives affected globally. Microsoft gave people the opportunity to acquire in-demand digital skills across Microsoft Learn, LinkedIn, and GitHub learning platforms.

Among learners, popular courses have been for roles in software development, customer service and data analysts according to Microsoft.

Microsoft is extending the free LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft Learn courses and low-cost certifications that align to 10 of the most in-demand jobs offer through 2021.

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Microsoft Global Skills Initiative formally launches in Kenya

Microsoft Global Skills Initiative formally launches in Kenya

Global Skills Initiative Kenya Microsoft

Microsoft officially launches its Global Skills Initiative program in Kenya today. The announcement comes as the company unveils a private sector partnership agreement with Stanbic Kenya and the Kenya Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise Development.

The partnership aims to enhance the employability of Kenyan citizens through digital upskilling to address the skills gap within the market.

The program will be rolled out in two parts, the Global Skills Initiative (GSI) and the Emerging Markets Initiative (EMI). The GSI is what is being rolled out globally using Linkedin’s learning platform. The EMI is more about digital literacy for underserved communities. Part of the company’s coding4employment partnership with the AfDB. Both contents will be localized, customized and deployed by local implementing partners.

54 thousand Kenyan youth have engaged with the GSI since it launched in June says Kendi Ntwiga-Nderitu, Microsoft Kenya Country Manager. She also noted that Microsoft wants to help people differentiate themselves to be relevant for today and tomorrow with digitizations.

Kendi shares that some of the popular learning paths amongst Kenyan learners are skills that can be offered to the world from Kenya. These include; software development, customer service specialist, data analysts, digital marketing and project management. They make one relevant not just for Kenya, which increases the output of our youth, she adds.

At Microsoft, equipping citizens with adequate resources and technology so that they are able to upskill and reskill has always been at the centre of our work. Securing partnerships with like-minded organizations such as Stanbic Bank Foundation and the Ministry makes complete sense if we are to reach and scale for maximum impact and successfully curb the impact of the pandemic.

Kendi Ntwiga-Nderitu, Microsoft Kenya Country Manager

The Global Skills Initiative in Kenya through the partnership will see about 50 thousand people skilled by end of the year. With plans to reach 500 thousand in the next three years.

Microsoft announced the skills program in June last year after the global economic crisis due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The program seeks to help 25 million people worldwide hit by job losses acquire digital skills to fill new ones.

Global Skills Initiative in Africa

When Microsoft launched its Global Skills Initiative it didn’t see a lot of adoption in Africa due to several challenges. Microsoft shared in January that 900 thousand people across the Middle East and Africa have participated in the program. Noting the popular learning paths are software developer, customer service specialist and data analyst.

This number shows a lesser fraction of the 10 million learners around the globe and what has been achieved in other regions.

The company mentioned partnering with other organizations and governments as one of the many ways to change this. Including offering additional funding and services where needed.

Watch the Microsoft Kenya country manager make the announcement.

https://youtu.be/YmrqaxPVics?t=3375
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