Microsoft is CSR partner of Smile

	NGO Connection Day on IT & life-skills education Smile Foundation - Microsoft Unlimited Potential Community Technology Skills Programme Smile Foundation in partnership with Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited organised the ‘NGO Connection Day’ on the role of ‘IT and life-skills in enhancing employability prospects for underprivileged adolescent youth’. The two day programme saw participation of many NGOs from across India along with representatives from corporate houses, partner organisations and other stakeholders. There were training sessions, panel discussions and presentations on various topics related to employability of underprivileged youth. Participants had the common goal to share about measures of imparting IT training, life skills training to adolescent youth to prepare them for fast expanding retail sector.

	Microsoft has formally collaborated with Smile Foundation as a funding partner under its corporate social responsibility initiative. Microsoft is supporting one of Smile’s national level programmes named ‘Smile Twin e-Learning Project’ [STeP] which focuses on technology skills building for employment generation of underprivileged youth. The grant amounting to Rs. 7.12 Million will be utilized by Smile across 16 Indian states for strengthening the ongoing STeP initiative benefiting thousands of underprivileged youth. With the significant and timely support from Microsoft, Smile is planning to expand this programme to cover more youth from the deprived section of the society. Under its Unlimited Potential – Community Technology Skills Programme, christened ‘Project Jyoti’, Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited has announced the funding of Rs. 1.9 crore to three NGOs for enabling IT access to underserved communities in urban slums and rural India. Besides Smile Foundation, NASSCOM Foundation and Saath Charitable Trust are the other two organizations to have received grants from Microsoft. Till date, Microsoft has invested Rs. 37.5 crores under this initiative, impacting 20 states and Union Territories across India.

	Formalizing the partnership between Microsoft and Smile Foundation on December 18, 2007 in New Delhi, Dr. Akhtar Badshah, Senior Director and Worldwide Head, Community Affairs, Microsoft Corporation, said, “Access to information and communication technologies holds tremendous potential to be the change agent for creating a more equitable order of economic opportunities and sustainable development. Every life that our Community Technology Skills Program in India has helped transform through IT skills training is a testament to this. I am very glad indeed to deepen the engagement with our NGO partners for continuing to reach out to underserved individuals and changing lives.”

This collaboration entails a joint commitment by Microsoft and Smile Foundation to deliver effective programme for taking IT to youth, women and underserved communities in urban slums and rural India, and leverage technology skills to promote employability. Smile Twin e-Learning Project has got a boost from getting support from Microsoft.

Formalizing the partnership on December 18, 2007 in New Delhi, Dr. Akhtar Badshah, Senior Director and Worldwide Head, Community Affairs, Microsoft Corporation, said, “Access to information and communication technologies holds tremendous potential to be the change agent for creating a more equitable order of economic opportunities and sustainable development. Every life that our Community Technology Skills Program in India has helped transform through IT skills training is a testament to this. I am very glad indeed to deepen the engagement with our NGO partners for continuing to reach out to underserved individuals and changing lives.” Dr. Badshah shed light on the need for bridging the digital divide and taking the benefits of IT to the grassroots.

Smile Foundation will focus on training underprivileged youth to enable them to secure employment in fast expanding sectors of the economy like BPO, retail and hospitality.

Importance of a programme like Twin e Learning has grown manifold with the coming in of global giants to India especially in IT, Hospitality & Retail sectors leading to a subsequent increase in the demand of skilled workforce. On one hand, it appears that the decades old problem of unemployment in India will get addressed in times to come with the increase in the availability of jobs in private sector but on the other, the stark reality facing us is the lack of skilled workforce. Despite a rise in literacy rates in India over the last few years, there is an acute shortage of skilled work force in our country due to the inability of our education system to churn out youths who are adequately trained to become employable. Smile Foundation with its focus on education and empowerment of underprivileged children and youth therefore took it upon itself to address the issue of educated but unemployed youth.

Smile Twin e-Learning Programme is an initiative designed specifically to impart marketable skills to adolescent youths of the country - enhancing their prospects of employability - hence guiding them on path to a dignified living and self reliance. It focuses on urban youths from under-privileged community - residing in slums/ JJ clusters and/or from rural –urban hinterland – hitherto constrained but looking forward to an opportunity to realize their goals and ambitions. The specially designed course of Twin e-Learning Programme provides these aspirants with the suitable knowledge and skills as per the needs and requirements of the industries. The course books and curriculum, which has been developed in collaboration with International Management Institute, are being followed in all the centres. Smile plans to reach out to 50,000 beneficiaries in next 5 years.

Smile appreciates the corporate social responsibility exhibited by Microsoft Corporation to promote basic computer as well as employability skills among the underprivileged in India.

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