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Mayor Turner and Microsoft expand digital alliance with the city of Houston

Tech company will invest in workforce development as part of “accelerate” initiative and support Houston’s innovation district at The Ion

HOUSTON — Aug. 24, 2020 — Mayor Sylvester Turner announced on Monday that the city of Houston has expanded its groundbreaking digital alliance with Microsoft to innovate in big data, artificial intelligence and the digital economy. Microsoft brings to Houston “Accelerate,” a new program designed to address economic recovery through skilling both underserved communities and re-skilling the many Americans impacted by COVID-19.

The collaboration is intended to create new economic opportunity, close equity and digital skills gaps, and prepare a workforce for the 21st century.

“Microsoft launched the Accelerate program at a time when closing the digital divide has never been more important,” said Kate Johnson, president of Microsoft U.S. “We’re thrilled to be joining Mayor Turner and an impressive group of partners in this effort to expand access to in-demand digital skills—and close digital skills gaps widened by COVID-19—through Accelerate: Houston.”

The mayor was joined by Jacky Wright, chief digital officer, Microsoft U.S., to announce details of the Houston Innovation Alliance and Accelerate: Houston. Other partners supporting the alliance include The Ion, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Kino-Eye Center, Upskill Houston, University of Houston College of Technology and Space Center Houston.

“More than two years ago, I announced our first transformative alliance with Microsoft — the first of its kind in the United States,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “Today, I am pleased to say we are taking another leap toward strengthening Houston’s global standing as a center for innovation and technology.”

Through coordination with corporate partners, K-12 school systems and higher education providers, Microsoft is developing a holistic plan for professional development/support and addressing the equity gap across the community:

  • For transitioning members of the workforce and/or local veterans, the company will offer digital literacy workshops, empowerment programs and other development training with industry experts through LinkedIn Learning, to help prepare them for opportunities in new technologies and increase digital skills training.
  • For students, the company will bring the Microsoft Imagine Academy Learning Paths to Houston schools, with content and industry certifications mapped to student skill development. Additional programming includes LinkedIn workshops, DigiCamps and DigiGirlz camps, bringing young people together to plan their future, help them identify the skills they need to reach their goals, and connect to programs and technology that will help them get there.
  • For K-16 education providers, Microsoft and partners will bring digital literacy training and Modern Workplace training focused on digital skills for educators.

“The University of Houston College of Technology and Microsoft are together providing students, professionals, businesses, and the Houston community with the resources to manage, create, communicate, and commercialize meaningfully unique opportunities,” said Dean Anthony Ambler, University of Houston College of Technology. “As game changers, the College of Technology and Microsoft transcend beyond the classroom with industry-recognized certifications, workshops, and degree programs that support workforce creation and upskilling while reinforcing a culture of innovation. These complementing activities champion the Houston community as adept practitioners and mentors in proven disciplines that apply ingenuity and technology to solve problems, improve lives, and enhance the economy.”

Through their joint efforts, Microsoft and the city of Houston will work to advance civic innovation and smart city initiatives, economic development and recovery, and digital skilling for workforce and youth.

“Our initial alliance with Microsoft, established in 2018, created the foundation for Houston to grow as a smart city. It brought startup innovation to city challenges through The Ion Smart City Accelerator, proved out cases for the use of IoT and AI to make our city safer and more resilient, and provided equitable access to technology through digital literacy, upskilling programs and Wi-Fi on public transit,” said Jesse Bounds, innovation director for the city of Houston. “This expansion will continue to build upon this foundation the skills, processes and technologies needed to drive future growth and equitable prosperity in the city and position Houston to be a shining example to others across the globe.”

To help accelerate the integration of technology and implement the vision to make Houston a center of excellence for innovation in energy transition, AI, IoT and data science, Microsoft is investing more than $1 million into programs that support social entrepreneurship and other initiatives in partnership with Houston’s Innovation District at The Ion.

“With this digital alliance, one of history’s most important and innovative technology companies becomes a key pillar of The Ion,” said David Leebron, president, Rice University. “Microsoft will help implement the vision to make Houston’s new innovation district a focal point for the future of energy, artificial intelligence, data science and smart cities.”

“As a founding partner of The Ion Smart and Resilient Cities Accelerator, Microsoft has already established a close collaboration with The Ion, supporting startups as they develop and scale their businesses and pursue pilot opportunities with the city of Houston,” said Jan E. Odegard, The Ion’s interim executive director. “In addition to supporting entrepreneurs solving challenges like mobility, clean-tech, air quality and water purification, we are excited to expand our partnership with Microsoft as part of this digital alliance with the city of Houston to include access to resources that allow us to offer more robust workforce development initiatives on-site at The Ion’s new space.”

“Houston is home to some of the world’s most important medical breakthroughs, and as the Energy Capital of the World, we’re leading the energy transition into a more sustainable future,” said Mayor Turner. “Microsoft shares my vision to make Houston the Smart City of the future and a leader among U.S. cities as we develop excellence in innovation, AI and digital equity.”

Accelerate: Houston is the latest U.S. implementation of Microsoft’s Global Skills Initiative, an ambitious plan to help 25 million people worldwide acquire new digital skills by the end of the year.

More information can be found at https://aka.ms/AccelerateHouston.

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]

Mary Benton, director of communications, city of Houston, (832) 393-0830 (office), (713) 208-6229 (mobile), [email protected]

Ada Ortega, press secretary, city of Houston, (832) 393-0800 (office), (832) 547-3240 (mobile),
[email protected]

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.

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Skilling for the future: new investments in Microsoft Learn

At Microsoft, we’re building a “learn it all” culture where we aim to embrace curiosity, focus on being resourceful, and take our learnings and apply them for future success.

In that light, learning is more important than ever, and our goal is to help make technical learning even more accessible to everyone who wants to acquire a new skill, chase a new career path, and stay up-to-date on the latest technological advances. As we announced yesterday, Microsoft and LinkedIn are making a broad commitment to help students, job seekers and employees gain the skills they need to be successful in today’s digital-first economy.

Microsoft Learn is an integral part of our skilling experience – it’s a free online learning platform that combines short step-by-step trainings, browser-based interactive coding and scripting environments, and task-based achievements to help learners advance their technical skills and prepare for certifications. From Azure to Microsoft 365 and Power Platform to Dynamics 365 and more, we offer training that can help everyone learn – from students to job seekers to professionals. Learners and organizations can personalize their experience by building and sharing customized training collections and can use bookmarks to easily find and return to content. Throughout the learning journey, learners can earn points, levels, and unlock badges, and can easily share their progress with colleagues and on social media.

With more than 4 million learners registering in the less than two years since its launch, we’ve been humbled and inspired to see the adoption and engagement from the community. And in the last few months, as people have transitioned to work from home, we’ve seen a spike in Microsoft Learn usage, with users engaging with 192% more learning modules from January through May of this year compared to last year.

We’re continuing to invest in the Microsoft Learn platform, where learners will find:

  • More than 225 learning paths.Collections of modules are organized around specific roles and technologies.
  • More than 1,000 modules. The building blocks of the Microsoft Learn experience, a module is a course that contains videos, labs and articles.
  • Role-based learning for 17 roles. For example, software developer, AI engineer, data scientist and solutions architect.
  • Training aligned to 35 Microsoft certifications. Earning certifications shows you are keeping pace with today’s technical roles and requirements. Certification exams can be taken online, and users can easily share their certifications on their LinkedIn profile. Later this year, we will offer discounted certification exams for those impacted by COVID-19.
  • More than 160 instructor-led training courses. Access deep technical training, taught by Microsoft-certified trainers, bringing you and your team customizable learning solutions.
  • Localized in up to 23 languages. Learning paths are supported in up to 23 languages depending on the topic.

Recently introduced Microsoft Learn features include:

  • Learn TV: Learn TV streams original live and pre-recorded content daily from Microsoft and the community. Meet our engineers through live training, casual conversations, event coverage and hackathons, all on Learn TV.
  • Cloud Skills Challenge: A new way to build your cloud skills with easy, self-paced learning that lets you complete modules in a team environment and compete for prizes.
  • Microsoft Q&A: Relevant and timely answers to technical problems from a community of experts and Microsoft engineers. Microsoft Q&A is now the single question-and-answer destination for all Azure products and services.
  • Microsoft Learn Catalog API: Integrate Microsoft Learn into your company’s own experiences. Now in preview, the Catalog API enables developers to integrate Learn content and trainings into their existing applications and learning management systems, and provides organizational reporting capabilities.
  • Microsoft Learn for Students and Educators: We launched a new collection of curated content for students, including learning paths from leading universities and content to inspire and challenge students to build with social impact and responsibility in mind. For educators, we’ve made it easy to access Microsoft ready-to-teach curriculum and teaching materials aligned to industry-recognized Microsoft certifications. These certifications augment a student’s existing degree path and validate the skills needed to be successful across a variety of technical careers.
  • Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors: Microsoft Learn is where everyone comes to learn, and the Learn Student Ambassadors are everywhere helping students learn. This new program brings together a global group of campus leaders to help their peers learn things they care about most, from social issues to new technologies. Ambassadors get a first look at new Microsoft technologies, gain leadership skills, and receive mentoring from professionals in the industry, and their peers benefit from their knowledge, which can now be shared via the Microsoft Learn platform.

Microsoft Learn complements LinkedIn Learning’s online educational platform of over 16,000 courses taught by industry-leading experts that helps people discover and develop business, technology-related, and creative skills. Microsoft Learn and LinkedIn Learning will be incorporated into the new learning app in Microsoft Teams, previewing later this year. The new app will make learning a natural part of an employee’s job, leveraging the tools they already use every day at work.

As a lifelong learner myself, I’m excited we’re able to offer such a robust set of free resources for everyone who wants to learn. If you don’t have a Learn account, I encourage you to check it out. It’s a great time to polish your skills and learn something new in a fun way.

Learn more about Microsoft’s commitment to helping 25 million people acquire new digital skills needed for the COVID-19 economy, and hear Brad Smith talk about why it’s important.

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Microsoft and the city of Atlanta lead coalition of partners to close the digital skills gap and build a more inclusive workforce

ATLANTA — July 1, 2020 — On Wednesday, Microsoft Corp. announced “Accelerate,” a new program designed to address economic recovery through both skilling underserved communities and re-skilling the many Americans impacted by COVID-19. Accelerate: Atlanta is the first of many city-focused digital skills and employment partnerships designed to upskill and increase employability.

Accelerate: Atlanta is the first U.S. implementation of Microsoft’s global skills initiative, an ambitious plan to help 25 million people worldwide acquire new digital skills by the end of the year. The announcement supports the needs of Atlantans impacted by the global pandemic and racial inequities in access to education. With support of the mayor’s office and additional public and private partnerships, the initiative aims to accelerate economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19, address the needs of people of underserved communities who require digital skills to stay competitive, and empower them to seize the employment opportunities of the future. Expanding access to digital skills is a critical first step in improving employability to help build local economic recovery, especially for the people hardest hit by job losses.

Accelerate: Atlanta brings together civic, learning and corporate partners to provide skills across the spectrum of digital proficiency to build a more inclusive workforce for all.

  • Empower underserved communities to close the digital divide in the growing workforce.
  • Provide digital skills to promote economic uplift for Atlanta’s populations with the highest susceptibility to automation and COVID-19 impact.
  • Target the market with existing digital fluency to ensure that they can keep up with the advances in AI and machine learning.

Partners in the coalition include:

  • Civic partners: The Office of the Mayor of Atlanta and Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce
  • Learning partners: General Assembly, OpenClassrooms and TechBridge
  • Corporate partners: Accenture and others to be announced soon

Microsoft is backing the effort with over $1 million in investments to assist those who need it most, including people with lower income, people with lower educational attainment and racial/ethnic minorities. Atlanta-based nonprofit organizations led by and serving Black/African American communities will be among the 50 such organizations across the United States receiving cash grants to aid in this skills initiative.

“Through Accelerate: Atlanta, Microsoft and its partners will help close the digital divide and ensure there is a place for everyone in our shared future,” said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. “The road to economic recovery must begin with pathways to opportunity that are inclusionary and accessible to all. This is more than an initiative — this is an investment in underserved and underrepresented communities that will equip our residents with skills to compete in a modern workforce, while at the same time grow our middle class.”

“Atlanta is the first U.S. city in our ambitious national investment plan to support our country’s economic recovery,” said Kate Johnson, president of Microsoft U.S. “We’re delighted that we can bring the breadth of the Microsoft technology ecosystem in partnership with the mayor to provide communities in Atlanta with the digital skills needed for a more equitable, prosperous future.”

“We’re committed to equipping more communities with the digital skills needed to come back from this crisis even stronger through our work with Microsoft,” said Jake Schwartz, CEO and co-founder at General Assembly. “We’ve been proud to be a part of Atlanta’s thriving tech, startup and innovation ecosystem for years, and are thrilled to continue our investment in the community while advancing this important national partnership with the launch of Accelerate: Atlanta.”

“Microsoft shares our commitment to serving underrepresented communities with equity, access and opportunity. We are thrilled to align our mission of ‘breaking the cycle of generational poverty through the innovative use of technology’ with Microsoft and the Atlanta community to close the digital divide, creating real opportunities for those who need it most,” said Nicole Armstrong, CEO of TechBridge.

“I applaud Microsoft and the many partners working to make Accelerate: Atlanta a success. Our region is uniquely situated to benefit from this initiative through our dense innovation community coupled with the presence of noted higher education institutions training our brightest minds,” said Metro Atlanta Chamber President and CEO Katie Kirkpatrick. “I am excited to see the progress as Accelerate: Atlanta closes the digital divide and equips the next generation with the in-demand skills needed to succeed.”

“Accenture is committed to advancing equality for all people all the time, and to doing more to drive sustained change in our communities,” said Jimmy Etheredge, Accenture’s CEO for North America. “We are pleased to join Microsoft and our coalition partners in Atlanta to equip more of our citizens with the digital skills they need to be prepared for the jobs of the future — and we look forward to extending the impact of this initiative across the United States.”

More information can be found at https://aka.ms/AccelerateAtlanta.

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.

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Microsoft to help 25 million people worldwide acquire new digital skills needed for the COVID-19 economy

REDMOND, Wash. — June 30, 2020 — Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced a new global skills initiative aimed at bringing more digital skills to 25 million people worldwide by the end of the year.

The announcement comes in response to the global economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Expanded access to digital skills is an important step in accelerating economic recovery, especially for the people hardest hit by job losses.

This initiative, detailed on the Official Microsoft Blog, includes immediate steps to help those looking to reskill and pursue an in-demand job and brings together every part of the company, combining existing and new resources from LinkedIn, GitHub and Microsoft. This includes:

  • The use of data to identify in-demand jobs and the skills needed to fill them.
  • Free access to learning paths and content to help people develop the skills these positions require.
  • Low-cost certifications and free job-seeking tools to help people who develop these skills pursue new jobs.

This is a comprehensive technology initiative that will build on data and digital technology. It starts with data on jobs and skills from the LinkedIn Economic Graph. It provides free access to content in LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn and the GitHub Learning Lab, and couples those with Microsoft Certifications and LinkedIn job seeking tools. These resources can all be accessed at a central location, opportunity.linkedin.com, and will be broadly available online in four languages: English, French, German and Spanish.

In addition, Microsoft is backing the effort with $20 million in cash grants to help nonprofit organizations worldwide assist the people who need it most. One-quarter of this total, or $5 million, will be provided in cash grants to community-based nonprofit organizations that are led by and serve communities of color in the United States. The company is also pledging to make stronger data and analytics — including data from the LinkedIn Economic Graph — available to governments around the world so they can better assess local economic needs.

Microsoft will use its voice to advocate for public policy innovations that will advance skilling opportunities needed in the changed economy.

Microsoft also announced it is creating a new learning app in Microsoft Teams designed to help employers skill and upskill new and current employees as people return to work and as the economy adds jobs.

“COVID-19 has created both a public health and an economic crisis, and as the world recovers, we need to ensure no one is left behind,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “Today, we’re bringing together resources from Microsoft inclusive of LinkedIn and GitHub to reimagine how people learn and apply new skills — and help 25 million people facing unemployment due to COVID-19 prepare for the jobs of the future.”

“The biggest brunt of the current downturn is being borne by those who can afford it the least,” said Microsoft President Brad Smith. “Unemployment rates are spiking for people of color and women, as well as younger workers, people with disabilities and individuals with less formal education. Our goal is to combine the best in technology with stronger partnerships with governments and nonprofits to help people develop the skills needed to secure a new job.”

“Creating opportunity for every member of the global workforce drives everything we do at LinkedIn,” said LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky. “As a part of the Microsoft ecosystem, we have the unique ability to help job seekers around the world — especially those who have been disproportionately disadvantaged during the COVID-19 crisis — gain the skills and find the jobs they deserve. We’re proud to be bringing the right data about what the jobs and skills of the future will be to create the right learning paths to help 25 million job seekers find their next opportunities. We’re making it all available at opportunity.linkedin.com.”

More information can be found at the Microsoft microsite news.microsoft.com/skills.

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.

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Tune in June 30 at 8 a.m. PT for our plan to help people get the skills they need as the economy changes

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an economic crisis, putting millions of people out of work. As economies start to reopen and organizations of all sizes consider how best to work in a COVID-19 environment, we anticipate the increased use of digital technology, and therefore, a stronger demand for digital skills.

Tune in June 30 at 8 a.m. PT to hear more from Satya Nadella, Brad Smith, Ryan Roslansky and Charlotte Yarkoni about how Microsoft and LinkedIn plan to help people get the skills they need to succeed as the economy changes.

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