It’s all about inspiring breakthroughs!

“This is not a niche group!”, “ Let’s not still be having the same discussion in 20 years!”, “Let’s get the elephant out of the room!”  were just some of the impassioned rallying cries at the Employer Forum on Accessibility in the Workplace last week.

Youth unemployment remains around 20% within the UK and across the OECD. A key challenge facing young people is that they are lacking the experience to enable them to successfully compete for jobs in a tight labour market. 

For many years at Microsoft, we have been deeply committed as a company to ensuring that the magic of software is accessible also to the non-profit community worldwide. Nonprofit organizations generally strive to serve communities and fill gaps in tough economic times, where resources are increasingly tight. 

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.

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.

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.

I want to share my reflections on the recent announcement of the “Youth on The Move” initiative launched by the European Commission.  First of all, I was very pleased to see how much this initiative recognizes that opening doors to employability is at the heart of Europe’s success in 2020.  Microsoft is a partner in this journey.