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

In terms of modernising educational systems, Commissioner Vassiliou says, “We have a long way to go” As an 18-year-old, Androulla Vassiliou had her heart set on studying fashion design in London, but her parents insisted she read law instead. Later, as Vassiliou’s legal career took off, she hoped to become a judge. But the judiciary system in her home country, Cyprus, wasn’t ready...

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 rich online learning experience, foster peer collaboration and enable students to work away from school all within a secure online environment.

It’s all about inspiring breakthroughs! The objective of the Microsoft-AIESEC Tech Talent 4 Good project was to raise awareness amongst young IT students and recent graduates about the opportunities available in the non-corporate sector to implement ICT solutions that create a real and sustainable impact to support the noble mission of many NGOs.

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 digital economy. It's notable that many of the goals and metrics outlined in the European Commission's new Digital Agenda – public Internet use, availability of government services over the Internet, broadband adoption among disadvantaged groups...

The IT Academy in perspective

Finland has set out to create a university that has innovation built into its foundations, merging three institutions into one along the way.  Is Aalto a model for universities in other countries?

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 to cloud computing.

“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 to Germany?“ Raising aspirations for the digital economy and providing challenging angles of thought leadership, an eSkills manifesto was recently launched during the conference Digital Skills for Growth and Welfare hosted by Microsoft in the Danish...

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.

In this case study, you can read about how the European University Institute (EUI) overcame limitations in storage space of its previous email system with cloud computing, achieving 100 times more storage and 43% in cost savings. The European University Institute (EUI) was set up in 1972 by the six founding Member States of the European Communities to provide advanced academic training to doctoral...

Take a Microsoft consultant in Madrid, add a PR Director in Kiev,  include a development tools specialist in Warsaw and an online marketing director in London. Then add to this the HR consultant in Dublin and finally throw in a very generous sprinkling of technical experts all around Europe. That’s when you start to get a sense of the cumulative value that employees at Microsoft are...

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

Last month, people from around the world gathered at two education events in London – the Education World Forum (EWF) and the BETT trade show, one of the largest ICT in education conferences worldwide – to discuss how technology can help improve the state of education globally. Interestingly, The New York Times recently reported on the modern day skills students need to excel and succeed in...

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 untapped resource.

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 EU roundtable on eEducation entitled “ICT – are we doing enough to keep Europeans ahead in education?” in Brussels.

The world's premier student technology competition celebrates this year’s winners on the 6 October! The event takes place at the European Parliament and is hosted by Polish MEP Rafal Trzaskowski.

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 delivery of education and the creation of an attractive learning path for students both young and old. 

Technology can be an amazing tool to help drive social change and economic development. In their constant struggle to do more with less, many nonprofits have already embraced technology to improve productivity and reduce costs.

The Europe 2020 strategy calls for economic growth based on a smart, sustainable and inclusive model that targets an overall employment rate of 75% and a reduction of poverty by 20 Million among other priorities.

In June the "Enterprise & Industry Magazine" of the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission included an important article on e-skills.

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

If you missed the chance to read Professor Jonathan Liebenau’s great post of skills and cloud computing, I strongly recommend you finding 10 minutes to watch his webinar on how skilled (or not) the European work force will be to embrace cloud computing

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 get jobs through IT skills training by 2012.   

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

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

www.e-aptitudini.ro portal puts the incentive on upgrading skills! An initiative launched during the European eSkills Week by Junior Achievement Romania and Microsoft to match the demand for eSkills trainings against available educational resources! 

The pace of change and development in education has picked up substantially in recent years – largely because of the key role ICT is increasingly playing in both teaching and learning. 

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

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 future.

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

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

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

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 competitiveness, employment, and social inclusion.

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).

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 within organisations, and how it all affects technologists, users and the socially excluded alike…

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.

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 further into the business of selling ideas to be able to meet this challenge

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 difference. 

Forward-looking perspectives from INSEAD’s recent conference  ‘Building e-Competences to Strengthen Innovation in Europe’  and the European University-Business Co-operation Forum  would suggest that the academic/business footprint on skills and workforce development is moving towards a closer fit but that there is more work to be done!

Jan Muehlfeit, Chairman of Microsoft Europe, on unlocking human potential through inspiring creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship; and improving European competitiveness by re-aligning education programmess and providing support for start-up companies.

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

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

Innovation isn't just what scientists and engineers do: it's also a feature of many community-based organisations and social entrepreneurs. But the result is the same: new ways of doing things and new products and services that enable people to change their lives.