A digital skills initiative launched by Microsoft Corp., LinkedIn and Github has reached 10 million learners in 231 countries and territories last week.
The number is almost half the target of the ambitious global skills initiative that aims to empower 25 million people with more digital skills this year through opportunity.linkedin.com.
In the Philippines, ranked 27th globally in its skilling progress, close to 53,000 learners have been engaged.
“COVID-19 has accelerated the need for upskilling and transformed the future of work for communities in the Philippines. Addressing and closing the skills gap is an urgent task, key to inclusive economic recovery, and digital transformation," said Microsoft Philippines Country General Manager Andres Ortola.
"While we are close to the halfway point of our goal to help 25 million people globally—and making meaningful headway here in the Philippines—we continue to strive in our commitment to drive societal progress and help improve lives of people by advancing their capabilities and expertise. We’re thankful to our collaborators and partners in this effort for helping us ensure the sustainability of these programs and scale up their impact to Filipinos nationwide,” Ortola added.
Across 21 markets in the Asia Pacific, there have been about 1,552,000 learners reached through the initiative.
Globally, the most popular in-demand learning paths are Software Developer, Customer Service Specialist, and Data Analyst.
Locally, Microsoft’s nation-building agenda, known as the Para sa Bayan program, ultimately aims to positively impact 25 million Filipinos over the next three years by stimulating digital transformation, building coalitions for responsible innovation, closing the skills gap and enhancing employability, and creating sustainable societal impact.
In partnership with the Department of Education, over 20 million public-school students from K-12, junior high and senior high will be given Microsoft 365 accounts to enable their online learning experience.
As of Oct. 2, some 18.5 million accounts had been successfully rolled out in time for the opening of the new school year.
Microsoft will continue to support DepEd’s efforts with training and teacher enablement for 48,000 schools in the coming months.