Microsoft congratulates the following Unlimited Potential (UP) grant recipients. We are proud to support their work.
Regional
The regional European Computer Driving License (ECDL) projects are responsible for ensuring that training and qualifications for the ECDL are available to individuals with disabilities. Funding from Microsoft will be used to provide individuals with disabilities with IT skills training to meet the standards of the ECDL. The training for this project will take place at community technology centers (CTCs) across Western Europe.
Austria
Österreichische Caritas-Zentrale
As many as 200,000 socially disadvantaged Austrian women live in poverty. Most of them cannot afford to buy computers and have never had the chance to learn computer skills. IT training has the potential to open doors for these women and help them reintegrate into the labor market. In this public-private partnership between the Austrian Labour Market Service’s Ministry for Women and Caritas Austria, whose mission is to help marginalized individuals improve their lives, Microsoft UP funding will support a new course called “IT Skills Training for Women in Social Need”. The program will offer an IT literacy curriculum to socially disadvantaged women in Vienna to help foster their digital inclusion and to help increase their personal empowerment and job opportunities.
OCG-Austrian Computer Society
People with disabilities are often excluded from participating in the Information Society because of inadequate training. In Austria, 35,000 people with disabilities are unemployed. The European Computer Driving License, or ECDL, is an internationally recognized program for the certification of IT competence that sets the standard for IT skills acquisition. The Austrian Computer Society’s ECDL Barrier Free project for people with disabilities has already achieved major milestones with the support of the Austrian Ministry of Education and Microsoft UP. Seven modules designed to train this population and help them enter the job market are now available on an interactive learning platform. FY06 funding will be used to increase awareness of the program. Specific activities will include outreach to 300 ECDL training centers, participation in workshops that will reach 400 IT trainers, distribution of updates to 80 ECDL testers in schools, coordination with other organizations that serve the disabled, and donation of free Web-based ECDL content for the target group.
Belgium
Partnership Explore
IT skills are an important part of basic education because they enable citizens to fully participate in modern economic, cultural, and social life. The IT Initiation Program (ITIP) is a global action plan that is being implemented by eight partners. The aim of the ITIP is to give a large number of unemployed people (including women, men, locals, and immigrants) modern information and communication technology (ICT) skills in the context of job seeking and social inclusion. Digital centers will provide the access, while training modules will teach the skills. The coursework will include introductions to PC hardware, Windows, the Internet, and search engines, as well as training in Microsoft Outlook, Word, and Excel. In addition, some graduate trainees will be offered direct job opportunities in the digital centers. The abilities developed through this training will contribute to the participants’ personal autonomy, ICT competencies, and employment prospects in a competitive labor market.
VDAB
The VDAB is a public employment service that provides free vocational training to the unemployed. In this new program, the VDAB seeks to enhance social and employment integration among immigrants, particularly those who do not speak Dutch, in three ways: through a course in basic IT skills that focuses on using computers and communication technologies such as mobile phones, e-mail, and the Internet; through an electronic manual for job seekers that the participants themselves will develop and refine; and through a new virtual community where immigrants can share their job search and IT learning experiences. Innovations will include the use of “mirror software” to help participants more readily acquire basic skills in their native languages. The program will be implemented in at least 14, and as many as 40, locations, adding an extra dimension to VDAB’s Job Club for Foreign Speakers and providing participants with a starting point for a personal plan to find their place in the labor market.
Czech Republic
Charta77
The purpose of Charta77’s “PC Against Barriers” project is to provide disabled citizens with the ICT skills and infrastructure that can improve their chances of success in economic, social, and cultural life. Of the total number of unemployed people, 13.8 percent are people with physical limitations. Only a small percentage of disabled/disadvantaged people in the Czech Republic are employed, because they often lack the skills they need. Microsoft’s continued support of this project will enable the disabled to use their personal computers to find employment; develop the basic IT skills they need for the local job market; and gain advanced IT skills, including certification related to IT industry jobs.
Estonia
Tallinn City’s Board of Disabled People
Tallinn’s computer training and open Internet programs give disabled people the opportunity to participate in community activities, explore new careers and learning opportunities, and improve communication and networking with other people with disabilities. Microsoft’s support will provide no-fee Internet access at a center that will initially serve 100 people. IT training programs offered at the center will focus on basic use of the Internet and how to find disability resources. The new technologies available at the center, such as speech synthesizers, provide those with severe disabilities their only way to communicate with others.
Finland
The Finnish Association of the Deaf (FAD)
FAD’s Centaur project seeks to increase the participation of deaf sign-language users in the Information Society. Microsoft UP funding will support training for eight deaf persons (who will take responsibility for the program’s services) and the purchase of the Meteor publication platform, which was developed by Sininen Meteoriitti on Microsoft’s .NET base. As many as 41 local deaf clubs will use Meteor to produce and maintain home pages; they will also use the platform to publish training materials.
Deaf clubs will be supplied with standard IT equipment, including adaptations that make video communication in sign language possible, and with broadband Internet connections. The clubs and FAD will form a community extranet where they can distribute information and tips. In a parallel effort in the first year, 400 members of the sign-language community will receive instruction in basic software programs, communications equipment, information content, and production basics, as well as the use of these tools for civil activity.
France
ADIE (Association pour le droit à l’initiative économique)
Encouraging micro-entrepreneurship is one way to fight poverty. In a 2005 Microsoft UP-funded pilot project, ADIE demonstrated that efficient, effective support for micro-enterprises both reduces their isolation and gives them the tools they need to thrive. In FY06, Microsoft funding will be used to expand ADIE’s training in micro-entrepreneurship to seven new regional branches serving ten additional cities. The goal of the training is to enable individuals to acquire the basic computer skills they need to produce professional-quality quotes and invoices, streamline their communications with clients and vendors, and gain Internet access for tasks such as inventory control and website development. Training for micro-entrepreneurship is also an excellent way to bring women into the commercial community and to facilitate the sharing of ideas, tools, and business contacts among the participants. In 2006, ADIE will develop 40 new three-day training sessions. The Microsoft grant will be used to purchase computers and supplies, rent training rooms, and defray some administrative costs.
Germany
Stiftung Digitale Chancen
The European Computer Driving License, or ECDL, is an internationally recognized program for the certification of IT competence and sets the standard for IT skills acquisition. Unfortunately, lack of accessibility often means that people with disabilities are unable to earn the certificate, effectively disqualifying them from consideration for certain jobs. This situation is reversed when they are trained on modern IT equipment, including accessible software and input-output devices. However, one reason more than 170,000 disabled individuals are registered as unemployed in Germany is that the training centers lack the staff qualifications to support this target group. To address this issue, the ECDL Without Barriers project will develop and present a train-the-trainer curriculum, which will be deployed in 1,000 ECDL training and test centers. Other components of the project will include developing and evaluating accessible ECDL certification tests for blind and deaf individuals, as well as Web-based content for accessible IT training and ECDL certification.
Greece
City of Athens, Centre for Employment and Entrepreneurship
Based on the success of a community technology center (CTC) that was set up in the City of Athens Intercultural Center, the Center for Employment and Entrepreneurship plans to set up three more CTCs in the inner cities of the three largest cities in Greece that are suffering high levels of unemployment: Athens, Thessaloniki, and Patras. A free ICT training program will help those who are unemployed increase their job prospects by improving their computer skills and providing them with access to online resources for both employment opportunities and career counseling. The project will work in close collaboration with municipal authorities who are working to increase job opportunities for different segments of the unemployed population.
Hungary
Roma Eselyegyenloseg az Unios Csatlakozasert—Center for Educational Opportunity
The purpose of the Center for Educational Opportunity project is to enable Roma people to find formal employment. Microsoft’s support will enlarge the scope of an existing program to improve the information technology content offered. In the first phase of the project, candidates will get an introduction to IT basics through a series of small trainings. In the second phase, the trainees will prepare for exams using a new distance learning training. The trainees will receive the study package through the Internet and will then have the opportunity to use the computers available to them at the center for free.
Fogyatekosok Eselye Kozalapitvany (FOKA)
The FOKA project goal is to combine institutional resources to build each individual’s IT skills and knowledge regardless of his or her disability. The IT skills gained through the program will boost the chances of the disabled to find employment and provide them with a unique opportunity to participate in training specially tailored to their individual needs and learning pace, thereby facilitating their social and economic inclusion.
Italy
Associazione degli Interessi Metropolitani (AIM)
The largest demographic change of the 21st Century is the aging of the population in Italy and throughout Europe. One of the challenges posed by this demographic shift is to avoid the digital divide that can result when older citizens lack IT skills. To address this issue, AIM’s Internet Saloon gives seniors an opportunity to remain active and involved by providing them with a technology and cultural center that offers specific training on how to browse the Internet and use Microsoft’s software. A 2004 survey of past Internet Saloon participants showed that the IT training they received gave them new capabilities that made daily living easier, such as online shopping and banking. It also enabled them to meet people who share their interests over the Internet and to maintain links with family in distant locations. Funding from Microsoft UP will be used mainly to hire training staff and continue to offer IT classes.
Fondazione ASPHI Plus
South Italy is one of the most populated and least developed areas of the country, with a young population that has a high rate of unemployment—often above 20 percent. In addition, the region is home to many disabled, unemployed individuals whose lack of IT knowledge threatens their participation in the society and the economy. EmployAbility Skills NET is a long-term program that aims to enhance employment opportunities. The project will provide IT training to disabled, unemployed individuals, focusing during the first year on the Naples area, where 80,000 disabled, unemployed people are registered with the Naples Employment Center.
The program will identify and contact 400 potential participants; meet with them to learn how PC training could benefit them; provide each participant with access to a computer adapted to his or her special needs, as well as training on software fundamentals and the Internet; offer a job coaching service; and help participants achieve the best possible job placements. Funding from Microsoft UP will primarily be used to hire specialized training staff.
Latvia
LIKTA (Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association)
The main objective of LIKTA’s Latvia@World project is to enable each member of the community to benefit from information technologies and to participate actively in the new knowledge economy. The Latvia@World project is a nationwide initiative that will assist Latvia's population in overcoming the digital divide and the social exclusion it causes by promoting access to public and private business services available on the Internet and accelerating the development of the Information Society in the region. In 2006, the project plans to train 120 trainers and 8300 members of the target audience in basic computer and Internet skills. This project will help people improve the skills they need to participate in the Information Society and pursue new job opportunities.
APEIRONS (The Association of People with Disabilities and Their Friends)
APEIRONS’ Open Door project aims to create educational, employment, and social opportunities for disadvantaged young people and adults through free computer access, increased computer literacy, and IT skills development. It is also dedicated to challenging stereotypes about disabled persons and bringing them into the social and economic mainstream. The project will offer basic IT skills training in the recently created Disability Information and Accessible Environment Center in Riga, the capital of Latvia. The Center provides free computer access, computer literacy, and IT skills development. APEIRONS has partners and supporters in all regions of Latvia and cooperates with local governments and regional disability NGOs. These partners will work together and use their combined resources to provide a robust training facility for the disabled.
Lithuania
Lietuvos Paraplegiku Asociacija (Lithuanian Paraplegic Association)
The goal of the Mobile CTC project within the Lithuanian Paraplegic Association is to provide disabled people with marketable skills to better integrate them into the Information Society. The program will provide people with various disabilities with basic IT skills training, including hardware and software courses, Internet usage, and training on Microsoft Office. The project will also provide assistance with communication and job seeking.
Netherlands
Stichting Eigenwijks–Computerwijk
In the Geuzenveld-Slotermeer, Slotervaart, and Osdorp districts, 60 percent of the population is made up of immigrants, or the children of immigrants, from Morocco, Turkey, and other non-industrialized countries. This target group has a high rate of unemployment and can experience isolation because of their inability to speak Dutch. Most members of this group are also deprived of computer access. The DubbelKlik program addresses these issues by training volunteers from immigrant organizations to help their neighbors acquire IT skills. In FY06, Microsoft UP funding will train 128 staff trainers, allowing the project to offer a new DubbelKlik Plus program to individuals who have completed the initial training and to follow up that expanded program with the Microsoft UP curriculum. Participants who complete the initial training will receive a computer to take home. The follow-up activities will further broaden their knowledge of the Internet, enhance their ability to use their home computers to look for work and communicate online, and strengthen their Dutch-language skills.
Poland
Instytut Odpowiedzialnego Biznesu
This project will provide ICT skills to inhabitants of Podlasie—a rural area in the agricultural region of Poland. The project will help extend 5 of the 118 existing Ikonk@ Public Internet Access Points (PIAPs) into robust training environments. These centers will provide ICT skills training based on the UP curriculum and track the impact of the training on the trainees’ employability. Implementing the UP curriculum in 113 PIAPs across Podlasie will allow the broader community access to this professional curriculum. Twelve NGOs from different locations in Poland will also receive UP curriculum training to enable them to provide training to others. The program is focused on supporting NGOs who work with the underserved to provide or reinforce the skills they need to find employment.
Fundacja Rozwoju Rolnictwa, Wsi i OW—Your Chance for Employment
This project provides ICT skills training for the unemployed inhabitants of rural areas in Poland. The training is targeted to the current needs of the labor market to increase the job prospects of the unemployed. These ICT skills will not only help increase employment opportunities for the unemployed, but also help build the skills of those who have jobs but lack critical ICT skills, and support entrepreneurial skills building for those who want to start small businesses.
Russia
Project Harmony
Project Harmony will select 21 IDEA centers to provide improved technology access and skills training to underserved communities in Russia. The centers will be selected from a group of 96 centers across Russia and will share progress and approaches with the extended network. The program will support 30 hours of training each month (with 24 of those hours spent specifically on the UP curriculum). This one-year program will train 8,820 people. Attendees will have opportunities to participate in Microsoft's "Computer Fundamentals" course six times during the year. This course is designed to provide a basic introduction to computers for those who do not have experience with computers. Microsoft's contribution to the program will pay for part of the salary for the center coordinator and help offset the cost of training staff, materials, communications, evaluation and tracking, and management of the program.
Slovenia
MISSS (Mladinsko Informativno Svetovalno Sredisce Slovenije)—We Are Realizing Our Potential
This program will improve employability of the underserved, including recent immigrants, the Roma, and disabled people. MISSS has, through its unique approach, identified IT skills as a way to help individuals and communities reach a new level of personal development; MISSS has definitely raised the skills level and employability of the people it serves.
Sweden
Gotlands Lansbibliotek/IT−Cafe Hemse
The Internet cafe housed in the Hemse Library offers disabled people and senior citizens the opportunity to learn about computers and computer technology. Now the Hemse Library and the Gotland County Library plan to use Microsoft UP funding for FY06 to take the Internet cafe concept one step further by developing a mobile facility. They will adapt a well-equipped bus for maximum accessibility to ensure that people with disabilities and senior citizens can come to the mobile unit to book a variety of activities throughout the island of Gotland. These activities include trips, courses, theme evenings, and study circles, all specially tailored, as they are now, to meet the needs of the target populations. The mobile unit will increase the availability and accessibility of these services by extending them to individuals who cannot come to the Hemse Library on their own.
Pensiondrernas Riksorganisation (PRO)
PRO represents 396,000 pensioners, many of whom are uncomfortable with new technologies. While approximately 20 percent of pensioners have access to the Internet, PRO believes that every person in the community needs the ability to participate in the Information Society (for example, banking online, staying in touch with distant relatives, communicating with their doctors, or enriching their lives through the Internet). Yet many of the available IT training courses are not adapted to serve the elderly. To fill this gap, PRO develops programs in which pensioners train pensioners. PRO will use the funding from Microsoft UP to continue training district representatives and circle leaders, who are all members of PRO and pensioners themselves, as well as to develop new training in Excel. Because of their age, many of the program’s volunteer leaders cycle in and out of participation; the training provided to new leaders will help ensure the program’s sustainability.
Switzerland
Association pour le Patrimoine Industriel (API)
Geneva faces an unemployment rate of over 7 percent, well above the national rate of 3.9 percent. For some unemployed individuals, a lack of basic computer skills keeps them from finding work. The purpose of API’s e-inclusion project is to provide the unemployed with computer and software skills while also strengthening individual self-confidence and autonomy. To achieve these goals, API advances its industrial heritage mission through programs designed to reintegrate the unemployed into the larger workforce. For example, API is using Microsoft UP funding to provide a structured, work-like setting where unemployed people can gain access to computer facilities and upgrade their skills. API has also organized a world-class network of experts in letterpress and typography and founded the first European Monotype University.
Stiftung Zugang für Alle
The European Computer Driving License, or ECDL, is an internationally recognized program for the certification of IT competence and sets the standard for IT skills acquisition. In Switzerland, 20,000 students complete ECDL training each year, 60 percent of it in German. The aim of the Swiss ECDL Without Barriers project is to use the ECDL as a vehicle for integrating disabled individuals into the workforce in Switzerland and Lichtenstein. Many members of the target group may already possess the necessary skills, but lack of accessibility prevents them from gaining the certificate. The project will use Microsoft UP funding to reach 600 students with the existing German e-Learning curriculum in the first year. In mid-2006, the project will offer the French e-Learning curriculum to an estimated 150 candidates. Over the next three years, an estimated 75,000 students are expected to complete an ECDL program in Switzerland; with the assistance of this project, approximately 3,750 of those students will be people living with disabilities.
Ukraine
Institute of the Information Society
Microsoft UP funding will support a program that provides daily IT skills classes and employment assistance to the unemployed. This project is well aligned with the Ukrainian Government’s social policy, the goals of which are to address issues with unemployment, particularly in helping the unemployed gain the workforce skills that are required by employers.
United Kingdom
Age Concern England
Age Concern’s mission is to help older people enjoy the benefits of digital inclusion. The Mini Explorer program brings digital technology, especially e-mail and the Internet, to older people in an effort to reduce their isolation and poverty and increase their independence and self-confidence. In Year One of the project, Microsoft UP funding helped establish the program. In FY06, with Microsoft’s continued support, Year Two will introduce more older people to digital technology, to improve their IT skills and increase their employability and options for self-employment. Partnering with PRIME, a self-employment training scheme for older people, the program will help participants gain access to financing, mentoring, and training. Microsoft funding will promote the project’s sustainability through the establishment of permanent centers and training for the trainers. By leveraging these resources and PRIME’s business training, Age Concern expects to help its clients acquire the skills needed to re-enter the workforce, start their own businesses, or enhance their daily lives through activities made possible by digital technology.
Leonard Cheshire
When disabled people lack basic computing skills, it is difficult for them to compete effectively for employment or enjoy the benefits of technology in their everyday lives. The Discover IT project tackles this aspect of the digital divide by making technology a pleasant discovery, not a daunting prospect, and by providing disabled individuals with the IT tools they need to help themselves. With support from Microsoft UP, Discover IT established five centers throughout the UK in its first two years. Located in London, Kent, Derby, Edinburgh, and Warrington, each center has its own unique feel, but all carry the same ethos: to offer disabled people an introduction to IT in a relaxed, social, and fully accessible environment. The geographical spread of the centers enables as many disabled people as possible to benefit from this unique program. Two recently opened centers emphasize the skills that increase employment opportunities and complement Workability (another Leonard Cheshire program).
Citizens Online
Microsoft Community Learning Awards offer grassroots support to community-based IT skills projects across the UK, giving the Microsoft UP program national reach at a local scale. Award winners typically serve client groups that include the disabled, ethnic minorities, youth, and women. By providing grants of cash, software, and curriculum, these awards make it possible for small organizations to access the UP program and to benefit from the resources and expertise Microsoft provides.
Applicants for Microsoft Community Learning Awards usually have limited incomes and generally lack external funding, which makes it difficult for them to provide their clients with IT training. Although these cash awards may be small, they play a large role in spreading the benefits of the UP program; in the words of one grantee, "The award enabled us to…double our capacity for training visually-impaired students." In the past two award cycles, 55 community organizations received funding for IT projects. In FY06, the Microsoft UP grant to Citizens Online will support awards to 60 groups for projects that, based on past awards, could include anything from teacher training to broadband installation to specialized software for the dyslexic.
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