Microsoft on Wednesday announced it has trained close to 774,000 learners in India as part of its global skills initiative launched in June this year, to help 25 million people worldwide gain more digital skills in the pandemic-hit year.
In the three months since the launch, Microsoft, its professional networking platform LinkedIn and open source repository GitHub have reached 10 million learners in 231 countries and territories.
Across 21 markets in Asia Pacific, more than 1.5 million learners across 21 markets in Asia Pacific have been reached to date.
“Addressing and closing the skills gap is an urgent task, key to inclusive economic recovery and digital transformation,” said Dr Rohini Srivathsa, National Technology Officer, Microsoft India.
“While we are close to the halfway point of our goal to help 25 million people globally, we continue to strive in our commitment to drive societal progress and help improve lives of people in India by advancing their capabilities and expertise”.
Within India, the top learning paths are software developer, data analyst and digital marketing specialist.
Globally, the most popular in-demand learning paths are software developer, customer service specialist, and data analyst.
Microsoft on June 30 announced the global skills initiative to help 25 million people worldwide acquire new digital skills by the end of the year. The announcement comes in response to the global economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Covid-19 has created both a public health and an economic crisis, and as the world recovers, we need to ensure no one is left behind,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
“We’re bringing together resources from Microsoft inclusive of LinkedIn and GitHub to reimagine how people learn and apply new skills — and help 25 million people facing unemployment due to COVID-19 prepare for the jobs of the future”.
Earlier this month, Microsoft joined hands with industry-driven learning ecosystem Nasscom FutureSkills to launch a nation-wide initiative that aims to skill 10 lakh students in Artificial Intelligence (AI) by 2021.
Commenced from September 21, the initiative called “AI Classroom Series” will be placed in three modules.
The online classes will include live demos, hands-on workshops and assignments through self-learning, virtual instructor-led training, and mentoring.
–IANS