Technology giant Microsoft Corp. said over 150,000 Filipinos benefited from its digital skills training program during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Launched last year, the initiative reached over 30 million people from 249 countries and involved online courses from GitHub, LinkedIn and Microsoft in the areas of customer service, project management and data analysis.
“Skills will be the new currency in the postpandemic world. Over the past year, we’ve seen the pandemic affect people all across the world, including those who could bear it the least,” Microsoft Asia President Ahmed Mazhari said in a statement. Microsoft said the program would be extended through the year via free LinkedIn Learning and Microsoft Learn courses and low-cost certifications
“For us to emerge stronger from the pandemic, reskilling needs to be at the center of our economic reset,” Mazhari said.
The company’s local skills program aims to reach about 25 million Filipinos over the next three years.
Microsoft has separately partnered with the Department of Education to provide free Microsoft 365 accounts to over 20 million public school students and 900,000 teachers in 48,000 schools all over the country.
To date, over 400,000 teachers have been trained in Office 365, Teams and other digital teaching tools. At the same time, the global giant has stated targets to help “upskill” up to 800,000 government employees and five million students. INQ