The European Employment Forum 2011 is taking place in Brussels on the 22nd & 23rd of November in the frame of the Employment Week and is co-organized by the European Commission. The event will look at the labour market in the light of the significant changes that have taken place over the past few years in the global economy. Despite the often gloomy outlook, there are reasons for optimism, and...

To paraphrase Fidelity Growth Partners Europe’s Simon Clark, one of the judges at this year's BizSpark European Summit: it’s pretty tough pitching your business to a panel of seasoned investors in five minutes, with over two hundred people watching – media, VC’s, and movers and shakers from the tech industry.

Paving the way for new digital technologies such as the transition to the cloud requires a parallel investment in human capital.

Flexible working is the norm in many Microsoft subsidiaries across Europe. Employees are empowered to use our own technology – from Lync to Windows Phone to Sharepoint and Office – to communicate and collaborate, creating a culture of trust and transparency where people may work in a way that better suits work-life balance. These efforts have paid off, as today, the Great Place to Work Institute...

In January, Microsoft participated in the largest gathering of Ministers of Education in Europe and around the world at the Education World Forum.  At the forum, discussion of ensuring our students have the right skills to compete in this global economy was top of mind.  In partnership with Cisco and Intel, with the leadership of University of Melbourne we had the opportunity to participate in two...

“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...

A question on a lot on Irish people's minds at the moment is: where next for Ireland?  What areas do we need to focus on to restore competitiveness in the country?

Career Factor is the new online reality show based on the experiences of 9 IT personalities seeking to improve their careers by learning new skills, working towards certification and finding a new job. Each of our candidates have set a professional goal and over the course of the next 5 months they will share their every step along the way in real time.

Skills are the link to the successful economies of Europe 2020. The way in which we forecast skills demands, provide access to relevant learning tools and engage Europeans more readily in ongoing workforce development will rapidly impact the job profiles and employment opportunities seen on the European market.

It’s a humbling experience talking with CEOs of European start-ups, particularly in the ICT sector.

Microsoft has recently launched Imagine Cup Solve This, a new program to provide inspiration for students looking to help solve the world’s toughest problems whilst giving them a platform to narrow their skills gap.

The way we learn is changing. The voices of young people from across the globe are captured in this video, illustrating how they see the transition to a new culture of education empowered by technology.

The ‘European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion' is drawing to a close. This should make us wonder why we still see an unacceptably high number of Europeans enduring both poverty and social exclusion. Both are being heightened by the economic crisis, but the headlines often focus on the immediate casualties of the crisis – those whose jobs and benefits come first in the firing...

Many of the jobs in the next two decades simply do not exist today. Regardless of economic sector - retail, automotive, logistics, tourism, manufacturing or telecom- the transformation of industrial processes is upon us! However- are Europeans equipped and in the right skills ‘gear’ for a more digitally driven economy?

Did you know that 77 percent of jobs will require technology skills in the next five years as predicted by experts?  (Source: IDC)  That's one of the reasons Microsoft is working to help students get low-cost training and certifications that are crucial for today's job market and the next generation of young innovators.

The recent announcement of “Youth on the Move” by the European Commission has highlighted the challenge we have in Europe to help our young people into work. This is a major issue in the UK with 950,000 unemployed young people, a 20% youth unemployment rate. Older workers have traded down to lower skilled jobs during the economic crisis, displacing young people with less experience.

Creativity is at the heart of stimulating innovation and fostering sustainable growth at European level.  When it is combined effectively with new digital technologies it can solve some of today’s greatest global challenges whilst at the same time generating new employment pathways in the region.

Microsoft Innovation Centres around Europe aim to help harness great ideas and turn them into successful businesses while creating jobs, helping people and contributing to both Microsoft’s success and local European economies along the way.

I’m trying hard to contain my pride right now as Microsoft recently won the award for the number one best place to work in Europe, for the third year in a row!  

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.   

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. 

This video captures snapshots of the thoughts, recommendations and commentary that were sparked during the November 30th dinner debate around 'Skills for Innovation'.

In the coming five years, only 10% of jobs will be left for those who have no ICT skills, a figure that is especially significant at a time of rising unemployment in Europe and worldwide.

We recently wrote about the Get on the Bus tour of 12 European cities by the Microsoft Born to Learn team. 

Interviews with stakeholders on e-skills in Europe. Filmed at the launch of the report - Post Crisis: e-skills are needed to drive Europe’s innovation society - by IDC at Microsoft in Brussels, November 2009

CITEVE and Microsoft join hands to support Portugals textile industry workers by providing them with IT training to update their skills and re-enter the workforce.

As of last week the Microsoft Born to Learn team has been touring Europe on a bus and creating a lot of buzz... 

Best of with Viviane Reding, Meglena Kuneva, Neil Holloway, John Vassallo, Alexandr Vondra, Jan Muelfheit

In Germany’s knowledge-rich economy, it is estimated that 75 percent of productivity growth is generated through the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in the workplace, where one in two German employees uses a PC in their job.

Through the Students to Business (S2B) program, Microsoft collaborates with universities and businesses to provide students with specialized IT training and help them find jobs and internships at local companies.

Ali Tarabit has been a volunteer with the charity organization Aviation Sans Frontières (ASF) for almost three years. With his help, ASF has revolutionised its office operations, improving its efficiency and opening up new possibilities.