Microsoft Unlimited Potential Blog: Microsoft Unlimited Potential Blog

Today I wanted to share with you our final Accelerator Summit video.  This session addresses skills training and workforce development, an area of significant focus for Microsoft around the world.

The session, which was moderated by Pamela Passman, explores the impact of training and workforce development programs from the real world experience of a number of guest speakers.

We were privileged to have Liza Estlund Olson, Director, Bureau of Workforce Transformation, Michigan; Nalini Gangadharan, CEO, CAP Foundation; in India and Jim Gibbons, President and CEO, Goodwill Industries International join us.

You can also view a number of other videos from the Accelerator Summit:

• Videos- Innovating to help solve some of the world’s most pressing issues
• Video- How technology can enable nonprofits
• Video- Employee giving and social entrepreneurs at Microsoft

Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP) was launched by Bill Gates in 2007 as a company-wide effort to bring together business and philanthropic approaches to make technology more relevant, accessible, and affordable; encouraging close collaboration among businesses, local governments, educational institutions, and community organizations.

Today, this cross-company effort is represented by 18 Microsoft programs. While each program has distinct importance and reaches unique audiences, Unlimited Potential enables us to align these programs under one common mission that can create a much greater impact.

On this blog we will share with you our efforts to bring information technology to people living in communities around the world so that they can reap real social and economic benefits.  We have focused on three areas: transforming education; fostering local innovation; and enabling jobs and economic opportunity.   By combining Unlimited Potential with the company’s commitment to citizenship and community investment we believe we are changing the way in which corporations and their employees can bring about positive change around the world.

Through this blog we want to enable you to follow the varied areas of our work and share with you what we are learning, which in turn helps us to progress towards our commitments.  We believe that close collaboration with thousands of partners in the nonprofit community is as essential element in addressing today’s social and economic issues.

We hope to share with you our experiences as we travel around the world to different communities, meeting with our partners and learning how our investments are making a difference.  We also hope to bring you voices from those communities so that together we can all learn about how we can better support and serve our society. 

In that spirit we look forward to your comments, suggestions and contributions.

Akhtar Badshah

Senior Director, Community Affairs, Microsoft Corporation

From 2009 through the end of 2011, Microsoft is responding to the economic crisis with Microsoft Elevate America. Through Microsoft Elevate America, the company is partnering with local governments, as well as public and private organizations, to help 2 million Americans improve their employability by enhancing their IT skills.

Program Participant, Jesse Franco Chicago, Illinois

By distributing vouchers for Microsoft eLearning courses to states across the nation, Microsoft's Elevate America program will give individuals an edge in the recovering job markets across the country. They will return to the workforce with knowledge of current Microsoft products.

These skills will give individuals the opportunity for not only job placement, but also the potential for job advancement that would not have been available without this training.

Established by the Governor of Riyadh, the Prince Salman Science Oasis (PSSO) is a nonprofit, interactive center that nurtures innovation, creativity, and interest in scientific advancement among Saudi youth.

Microsoft partnered with PSSO to conduct a training for young people between the ages of 12 and 17 in information technology skills to prepare them for careers in technology. Held over four weeks, the program trained 110 teenagers in the Microsoft Digital Literacy curriculum and Microsoft Expression Web software.

Students Participating in a Training Session

In the final week of the program, five Microsoft employee volunteers helped students prepare and present group e-learning projects.  Microsoft awarded Xbox video game systems to project winners. Microsoft also provided all participants with USBs carrying an Expression Web e-book, the Digital Literacy curriculum, and the course certificate. Microsoft also contributed 17 computers with Windows 7 to the project, making PSSO the first nongovernmental organization in Saudi Arabia to receive the software.