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Exciting times at Innovate4Good seminar!

Putting technology in the hands of individuals who make a difference, is always inspiring. Alfred Nobel, himself would have been impressed to hear the... More

The Digital binder - a OneNote project!

Microsoft OneNote has helped reduce student drop-out rates in Norway. The country has made large investments in ICT education in recent... More

A Q&A with a technical school that simplifies the IT environment with Windows 8 deployment

Students report that the operating system makes it easy to view information without opening applications. The Microsoft in Education team talks... More

The impact of non-formal education in youth organizations on young people’s employability

If you were an employer looking for a young person to recruit, would you rather hire someone with impeccable academic credentials or someone who you... More

Sisters are doing STEM for themselves: Female BizSpark entrepreneurs speak out about women in tech

Why are there so few women technology entrepreneurs? There are numerous research projects and opinion polls that have looked into the issue, but we... More

Effective career levers for youth: putting more Europeans into jobs

Europe is at risk of being left behind by countries such as India, which is reshaping its future with new entrepreneurial creativity and social policy... More

EU for high quality learning: Updates from the High Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education

You’ve all seen the figures over the past year and more that show high youth unemployment across some European Union Member States. But do... More

Startup Revolutionary road helps Italian youth look at the bright side

Recently, both at European level and at Microsoft, we have had many discussions on how can industry improve and bridge the productivity skills of... More

Europe’s new plan for Digital Jobs: Microsoft signs pledge at Grand Coalition

The Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs was launched last week to address the shortfall of Europeans with digital professional skills and to exploit the... More

Youth, the key to Spain’s future

In this high level event we plan on gathering 100 young Spaniards, Startups and SMEs with the objective of establishing a forum for dialogue in which... More

School of the 21st century

As we discussed extensively at the ‘Youth, the Key to Europe’s future’ event in Brussels on 22nd of January, today’s educators... More

Transforming education to regain economic prosperity

Recommendations for education systems to support an improved workforce in the 21st century. Education systems need to be reformed in order to... More

Sharing creative approaches at the Partners in Learning Global Forum

The Partners in Learning Global Forum 2012 was a unique experience in my career, summarising in two words: Life Changing! I was able to be connected... More

Supporting future pioneers of computer science

When Jurgen van Gael joined London-based start-up Rangespan – a company which develops analytical tools to help retailers grow and optimise... More

We need public-private partnerships to secure Europe’s digital future

Digital skills are in short supply at a time when Europe needs them most. According to European Commission estimates, Europe faces a shortfall of... More

Tackling the white elephant of youth unemployment

When looking at the current state of the European economy, it is hard to ignore the struggles of one group in particular – today’s youth.... More

Modernizing education in order to secure smart, sustainable and inclusive growth

Microsoft’s event “Transforming education to regain economic prosperity”, will seek to promote and explore new assessment methods... More

Breaking the skills gap cycle: business mentorship at ‘Leader for a Day’

Last month, we joined the first ever pan-European job shadowing programme, led by Junior Achievement- Young Enterprise Europe, which gave us the... More

Employment Forum 2012: Creating Jobs for Growth

Microsoft is happy to sponsor this year’s European Employment Forum 2012, which will take place in Brussels on the 27th & 28th of... More

Using cloud solutions to create a collaborative environment in 21st century schools

A private grade 4-12 educational institution in Greece (Athens), Doukas School has invested heavily in innovative education to provide its 2,000... More

Moving towards a European Youth Guarantee

"Europe needs a youth guarantee - that young people will be in work, training or education within months of leaving... More

Europe 2020 goals: let’s not underestimate the role of technology

Youth unemployment in Europe is high. In many cases there are jobs available but the skill sets to meet them are scarce. Digital skills are in high... More

Finding and measuring 21st-century skills

Companies want employees who can think critically, work collaboratively and communicate through new technology. A revolutionary project is teaching... More

Fighting cyber threats you can’t see coming

Berlin’s Trifense, an EIT Entrepreneurship Award winner, takes a new approach to Internet security – and starts to gain traction in the... More

AppCampus: born to drive European innovation and business opportunities

There’s no escaping the news of today about growing unemployment and economy turbulence, which means uncertainty for many – not the least... More

What economic downturn? European tech start-ups flourish in the storm

Victor Henning, co-founder of Mendeley, an online service that helps academic researchers organise and share the mounds of documents they collect,... More

Fostering open innovation

Innovation processes are becoming more open. The large, vertically integrated R&D labs are giving way to distributed networks of innovation, which... More

The Digital Patrols project: upgrading the education system by student role models

ICT has recently been pointed out by the European Commission as one of the big job growth areas and as a digital native, a student in 2012 who has... More

Creating an entrepreneurial environment

Social stability, economic prosperity, and cultural richness all depend on educational excellence. Over the past thousand years, European universities... More

Learning from the past

Some revolutionary ideas for school reform are not so new. The 17th-century philosopher and ecclesiastic Comenius had important things to say about... More

The ultimate mash-up

The prospects for Europe's youth were never bleaker; the prospects were never brighter. More

What drives an innovative, IT economy?

At Microsoft, one of my primary roles is leading our Local Software Economy initiative, which aims to accelerate the development of innovative... More

Education reform means a break from the past

Why the industrial model – hierarchical organizations using standardised methods to produce uniform products – no longer works for schools... More

The classroom of the future is here

Innovative teachers + technology + smart policies = the active learning and collaborative skills required for the 21st century. More

Remaking Europe’s schools

In terms of modernising educational systems, Commissioner Vassiliou says, “We have a long way to go”. More

Finland moving towards online education and collaboration with cloud computing

Looking for web-based teaching tools to prepare its students for the future, Kello School in Finland deployed Microsoft Live@edu to give students a... More

Tech Talent 4 Good: Bringing IT Student Power to NGOs

It’s all about inspiring breakthroughs! More

NGOs overcoming the education curve to embrace cloud!

E-skills are no longer required only for those who work in IT departments, but for everyone participating in a digitized economy. The new economy is a... More

Migration towards high-level skills

The IT Academy in perspective More

Finland’s model for an innovation university

Finland has set out to create a university that has innovation built into its foundations, merging three institutions into one along the way. Is... More

University of Bologna bringing collaboration at a new level with cloud computing

In this case study, you can read about how students and staff at the University of Bologna can now collaborate and learn anytime and anywhere, thanks... More

Digital skills for growth and welfare in Denmark

“What could we get if we invested 4 billion Euros in digital infrastructure and skills instead of building a fixed link across the Femern Belt... More

IT, media and games in education integrates a necessary dimension of enjoyment in learning

This post is a discourse on how new technology is a key factor that induces enjoyment as an educational path to the skills of the 21st century. More

The European University Institute boosts productivity and gains 100 times more storage

In this case study, you can read about how the European University Institute (EUI) overcame limitations in storage space of its previous email system... More

Three days to make a difference during the European Year of Volunteering

Take a Microsoft consultant in Madrid, add a PR Director in Kiev, include a development tools specialist in Warsaw and an online marketing... More

Extending learning possibilities - Office 365 for education

Office 365 for education will extend learning possibilities to students while helping them master technology they will use in their future careers. More

Preparing today’s students for the jobs of tomorrow

Last month, people from around the world gathered at two education events in London – the Education World Forum (EWF) and the BETT trade... More

Digital Natives – The new way to engage Gen Y

Talent has no age. Talent has no passport. Talent has no gender; but opportunity has all three. Indeed, it is people that are the world's greatest... More

e-maturity of students and e-confidence of teachers

Just a few weeks after the launch of the EU flagship initiative Youth on the Move, on 4 October, Microsoft and European Schoolnet hosted a successful... More

Imagine Cup 2010 Event: Youth and creativity push the boundaries for innovation

The world's premier student technology competition celebrates this year’s winners on the 6 October! The event takes place at the European... More

A collaborative framework for Innovative Education

Innovation in technology has changed the way we access and consume knowledge! With this in mind there can be no greater impact than that on the... More

Microsoft Office 2010 now available for nonprofits through donations program

Technology can be an amazing tool to help drive social change and economic development. In their constant struggle to do more with less, many... More

New skills for new jobs: opportunities for the inclusion of people with disabilities in the job market

The Europe 2020 strategy calls for economic growth based on a smart, sustainable and inclusive model that targets an overall employment rate of 75%... More

A European economy linked to eSkilled workers!

In June the "Enterprise & Industry Magazine" of the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission included an... More

Skilling Europe to innovate in the cloud

Can Europe use cloud computing to stimulate economic growth? If so, what skills will be needed to make most advantage of this technology... More

Webinar: management skills for the cloud

If you missed the chance to read Professor Jonathan Liebenau’s great post of skills and cloud computing, I strongly recommend you finding 10... More

Helping Britain get back to work! Microsoft UK fosters 500,000 people into skills and work

With UK unemployment reaching 2.5m and 77% of all jobs requiring digital skills, we launched Britain Works in September 2009 to help 500,000 people... More

Employment Commissioner László Andor puts the European spotlight on ‘Global Skills Strategy'

The first ever meeting of the G20 employment ministers set the tone for a concerted response to the current global employment challenge More

Future European competitiveness – dependent on our ability to provide the best education for our children

The European Union has singled education and training as one of its priorities with the adoption of the Lisbon Strategy, its overarching program... More

Future European competitiveness – dependent on our ability to provide the best education for our children

The European Union has singled education and training as one of its priorities with the adoption of the Lisbon Strategy, its overarching program... More

EU e-skills week in Romania: Launching ICT skills portale - aptitudini.ro

www.e-aptitudini.ro portal puts the incentive on upgrading skills! An initiative launched during the European eSkills Week by Junior Achievement... More

ICT and education: emerging trends in Europe and globally

The pace of change and development in education has picked up substantially in recent years – largely because of the key role ICT is... More

Event | ICT-Are we doing enough to keep the Europeans ahead in education?

Education is one of the important targets in Europe’s 2020 Strategy and rightly so. More

Securing Europe’s competitive future through education: Innovative Education Forum 2010

The feeling in Berlin this week is not quite one of the majestic city of the past, but much more an innovative, exciting capital looking to the... More

Funding boost for Telecentre-Europe will aid Europe’s digital literacy

With support from Microsoft, enabling Telecentre-Europe to meet and develop the bid, they have secured a €260,000 capacity-building grant from... More

New Skills for New Europeans – Immigrant Women Realizing Potential

Women now account for over half of Europe’s immigrants. They face many challenges including higher unemployment and are often clustered in... More

CeBIT 2010: Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Zapatero visiting the Microsoft’s Digital Classroom

CeBIT 2010 opened its doors yesterday, March 2nd. This year’s theme of the most important fair for the IT business is “connected... More

CeBiT puts eSkills in the spotlight

We can no longer afford to discard skills and human capital if we want to meet the challenges of a knowledge-based society and to maintain European... More

Advertorial: The Digital Wake-up Call, European e-Skills Week

This is an advertorial that we have produced recently with the European Commission in support of the European e-Skills Week (1-5 March 2010). More

A Financial Times column: e-Skills make it into the boardroom

Have a look at Ade McCormack’s recent Financial Times column, which highlights the importance of e-skills to our future, the role of management... More

Interview: Working with Microsoft, a view from an Italian partner

I recently had the chance to speak to one of our Students to Business partners, Roberto Pietra, who is VP of HR at the tech services firm, Avanade. More

Video blog: e-skills and the future of Europe

The competitiveness challenge is one which will decide the future of Europe, and given the nature of globalisation, we as a continent need to get... More

Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems while creating new opportunities for innovative jobs

Every year, Microsoft runs the Imagine Cup, a global technology competition for students to develop their IT skills while at the same time making a... More

The mantra for Europe – academic/business footprint

Forward-looking perspectives from INSEAD’s recent conference ‘Building e-Competences to Strengthen Innovation in Europe’ ... More

Video interview with Chairman of Microsoft Europe: Unlocking human potential

Jan Muehlfeit, Chairman of Microsoft Europe, on unlocking human potential through inspiring creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship; and improving... More

A programmer’s progress: Michał Moskal’s journey

How a student from Wrocław became an expert in software verification – via Aachen and Redmond. More

Films inspire researcher’s work on futuristic computer displays

As a teenager in 1990s war-torn Kosovo, Alban Rrustemi loved a good crime film – especially one with computing gadgets. More

Innovation for social and economic empowerment

Innovation isn't just what scientists and engineers do: it's also a feature of many community-based organisations and social entrepreneurs. But the... More