Africa: Microsoft’s YouthSpark Initiative to Create Employment Opportunities
By Jepkemei Gachomo
Microsoft has unveiled a new initiative - YouthSpark – which aims to create opportunities for 300 million youth in more than 100 countries, including those from Africa, during the next three years.
The initiative is a response to the fact that unemployment remains rampant on the African continent. With almost 200 million people aged between 15 and 24 in Africa today, the youth community represents more than 60 per cent of the continent’s total population and accounts for 45 per cent of its growing labour force. The imbalance between the demands of the labour market and the supply of appropriately skilled workers in Africa is also reaching its breaking point.
This companywide initiative includes Corporate Social Investment (CSI) and other company programs — both new and enhanced — empowering youth to imagine and realise their full potential by connecting them with greater opportunities for education, employment and entrepreneurship.
Ms Djam Bakhshandegi, CSI Program Manager at Microsoft in Africa, said, “Through YouthSpark, in sub-Saharan Africa alone, Microsoft has already reached over half a million young people and made $1.1 million worth of software donations to non-Government-organisations. In addition they have trained almost 30, 000 teachers through their Partners In Learning tools as well as equipping hundreds of small & medium businesses with relevant start up skills.”
“It is a sad reality that while young Africans are more literate than their parents, more of them remain unemployed; at the core of our YouthSpark and other CSI activity is our belief that relevant innovation holds the key to unlocking the answers to our most pressing challenges in the region,” noted Bakhshandegi.
YouthSpark is part of Microsoft’s African investment and growth drive, 4Afrika, which was launched early this month. Through 4Afrika, Microsoft will actively engage in Africa’s economic development to improve its global competitiveness. By 2016, the Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative plans to help place tens of millions of smart devices in the hands of African youth, bring 1 million African small and medium enterprises (SMEs) online, up-skill 100,000 members of Africa’s existing workforce, and help an additional 100,000 recent graduates develop skills for employability, 75 percent of which Microsoft will help place in jobs.
“Through YouthSpark, we are paying specific attention to the next generation of our ecosystem through our work with schools, students, start-ups and the developer community to drive skills and ICT integration which will in turn trigger growth,” says Bakhshandegi, adding that through partnerships with governments, non-profit organizations and businesses, Microsoft YouthSpark aims to empower youth to imagine and realize their full potential.
The initiative goes beyond charity and brings together a range of global programs that empower young people with access to technology and a better education and inspire young people to realise their potential, including free technology tools for all teachers and students to power learning and collaboration.