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Microsoft Bolsters Efforts to Create More Opportunity for College Grads
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Posted by Fred Humphries
Managing Director, U.S. Government Affairs
Career prospects for recent college graduates got brighter today thanks to a new initiative announced in Washington, D.C.
America’s strength and future growth in the global economy rests in the next generation, and in the opportunities that will nurture their talent and lead to technological innovation. Yet recent graduates have had a tough time finding jobs.
Today, Microsoft is proud to join the Invest in America Alliance in a significant commitment to jump start the U.S. economy through job creation for this year’s college graduates. Seventeen major corporations, brought together by Intel Corporation, committed today to substantial increases in hiring goals. In total, this initiative will result in 10,500 new college graduate hires in 2010 for a range of positions.
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Steve Ballmer Helps Bring Elevate America to Georgia
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Posted by Andrea L. Taylor
Director, North America Community Affairs
Earlier today Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer joined Governor Sonny Perdue to launch Elevate America in Georgia, making it the 10th state to join the program.
Microsoft created Elevate America a year ago to help equip people with the technology skills needed to succeed in the 21st century workplace. Working in partnership with state governments, Elevate America provides vouchers for free technology training and certification. Today, over 50 percent of jobs require technology skills, with estimates showing that number reaching 75 percent in the next decade.
With unemployment still high in most of the country – including 10.3 percent in Georgia -- programs like Elevate America help displaced workers find jobs, and help those currently employed keep pace with the changing demands of their positions.
Working with states across the U.S., Elevate America can reach a broad number of people in urban and rural areas, regardless of their education level, income or employment status – ensuring that anyone who wants and needs access to these resources can get it.
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Using Technology to Advance the Fight against Global Poverty
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Guest post by George Conard
Executive Director, Technology for Microfinance
Grameen Foundation
Microfinance has grown tremendously in the last decade, moving from little NGOs working in tiny villages to large institutions providing loans, savings accounts and insurance to hundreds of thousands of poor women and men. Grameen Bank in Bangladesh alone has more than seven million clients, while institutions like Grameen Koota in India serve more than 300,000. In fact, according to the Microcredit Summit Campaign there are more than 3,300 microfinance institutions (MFIs) providing services to more than 155 million poor people and their families globally.
As these MFIs have grown, so has their need for technology to help them manage their overall business operations. Technology plays a key role in Grameen Foundation’s mission to alleviate poverty. From equipping MFIs with the capacity to manage technology to building and delivering industry-wide solutions like the Mifos™ platform, our goal is to advance the use of technology so all MFIs can better serve more of the world’s poor.
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North Carolina Becomes 8th State to join Elevate America
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By David Bowermaster
Administrator, Microsoft on the Issues
North Carolina Governor Bev Purdue announced yesterday that North Carolina will partner with Microsoft to implement Elevate America, an initiative designed to help get people back to work by giving state and local governments the tools and resources they need to provide no-cost or low-cost technology skills training to job seekers.
North Carolina joins seven other states that have launched Elevate America since the program began in February, including Illinois, Iowa, Virginia, Washington, Maryland, Mississippi and Missouri.
As Microsoft Corporate Vice President Pamela Passman previously blogged, more than 50 percent of today’s jobs require technology skills, with experts predicting that percentage will rise to 77 percent in the next decade. In today’s market, jobs in almost every industry and at every level require at least basic proficiency with computers and other digital technologies.
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IT as an Engine of Economic Growth -- Another Perspective
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Posted by Robert D. Atkinson
President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
(Editor’s note: This is the first of what we anticipate will be a steady stream of posts from guest bloggers on Microsoft on the Issues. Robert Atkinson is the founder and president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based technology policy think tank, and has an extensive background in technology policy. His comments help to place the recently released study "Aid to Recovery: The Economic Impact of IT, Software, and the Microsoft Ecosystem on the Global Economy," by IDC, in a richer context.)
Last week’s disappointing U.S. jobs numbers, which revealed that national unemployment climbed to 9.8 percent in September, reiterated how severe this global recession has been and how long it is likely to take to get to full recovery and growth, especially on the employment side. If there is a bright side it is that the continued global transformation to a digital economy is serving as an engine for economic recovery and growth.
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Teaching 21st Century Skills for Employability
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Posted by Lutz Ziob,
General Manager, Microsoft Learning
The disappointing U.S. employment numbers released today demonstrate again the importance of providing students and workers with the best possible education to compete in the 21st century global economy. Unemployment is rising even as employers continue to struggle to find enough workers with technical and other needed skills. Specifically, lack of computer skills is a barrier for many job seekers. Equipping current and future workers with appropriate skills and competencies is critical to U.S. economic strength and competitiveness.
We still have a long way to go. Workforce development resources are inadequate to cope with the overwhelming number of workers in need of assistance. The federally-funded workforce training system served an impressive six million people last year, but managed to provide training to only about 410,000 of them, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor. Yet, significant new federal resources are unlikely to be available in the near future to broaden the reach of workforce readiness training.
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NLJ’s “Tales of the Recession”
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Posted by David Bowermaster
Administrator, Microsoft on the Issues
Earlier this week the National Law Journal published an interesting package of stories entitled, “Tales of the Recession.” It is a series of 10 profiles of individuals who represent various corners of the legal profession, from a law student and a former associate to a county judge and a law school dean. Each profile explores how the economic crisis has affected each person’s work, priorities and outlook for the future. NLJ interviewed Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith to find out how the recession has impacted his job leading Microsoft’s in-house legal department and interacting with our many law firm partners. The entire package is worth a read – even for the non-lawyers out there.
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White House Support for Innovation Will Drive Economic Recovery
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Posted by Pamela Passman
Corporate Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs
The way out of our nation’s current economic difficulties is through innovation fostered by investments in education, technical job skills training, and science and technology infrastructure. That’s what Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in February at the House Democratic Caucus retreat. Today we are very happy to see President Obama unveil his new national innovation agenda – a plan that will create jobs and steer our economy back toward lasting growth.
President Obama’s innovation plan commits the nation to several important strategies that Microsoft wholeheartedly supports: investing in the nation’s future workforce by reemphasizing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, and focusing R&D on national priorities such as health, broadband and energy. We also support the administration’s decision to appoint the first federal Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer to coordinate the government’s research, technology, and innovation policies.
President Obama’s focus on innovation strikes home for Microsoft, as we invest over $9 billion each year in R&D. We’ve long believed that government investments in STEM education pay huge social and economic dividends in the form of young minds eager to innovate, and we’ve recognized that companies such as Microsoft have a vital role to play in this process, which is why we’ve devoted hundreds of millions of dollars to improving education through Partners in Learning. It’s also why we launched Microsoft DreamSpark, which provides U.S. students with free, professional software development tools to help them gain the skills they will use to contribute to our nation’s innovation capacity. By promoting a well-rounded education for young people, the federal government and partner companies like Microsoft are making the soundest financial decision: investing in the future of American ingenuity.
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Promoting Innovations to 21st Century Careers
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Posted by Fred Humphries
Managing Director U.S. Government Affairs
At Microsoft, we believe that equipping students and workers with the education and skills they need to compete in the 21st century global economy is critical to U.S. economic and national security. Indeed, despite the economic downturn and high unemployment rates, Microsoft and thousands of our partners continue to struggle to find workers with the knowledge and experience necessary to help our businesses compete and grow.
These skill shortages exist despite significant investments by Microsoft and our like-minded partners to grow the pipeline of science, technology, engineering and math students through programs such as Partners in Learning, which provides curricula and class materials, and DreamSpark, which offers students free software.
But even if we succeed in developing a deep pool of highly skilled IT workers in the U.S., there will still be substantial workforce development needs to keep the U.S. economy evolving and growing long-term. For instance, there has been much talk in Washington, D.C., about the wave of new green jobs and health IT occupations that are likely to emerge over the next decade. Such occupations will also require that job seekers possess a basic platform of skills to prosper in a global economy.
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How Will Windows 7 Impact the Global Economy?
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Posted by Pamela Passman
Corporate Vice President
Given the large number of customers Microsoft serves around the world, and the many partners we collaborate with to maximize and deliver the benefits of our software, we have long sought to understand the economic impact of our work and our products.
Such information is especially helpful now, as governments and businesses look for catalysts that can help local and national economies rebound from the difficulties of the past year.
We believe that nothing spurs economic growth and creates jobs like innovations that pave the way for new products and services. We also know investments that advance information technology can help societies address some of their most pressing problems, from reducing the cost of health care to improving education and protecting the environment. Microsoft is investing more than $9 billion in research and development this year, building on years of very significant investments in R&D, which will result in significant product launches over the next 12 months. Most notably, we are preparing to unveil a new version of our popular Windows operating system, Windows 7, this fall.
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