Empowering Youth

Since 2004, Microsoft has collaborated with the Hong Kong Education Bureau to jointly promote IT in Education. By harnessing the power of information technology and next-generation eLearning practices, educators and students are empowered to stay competitive while building a sustainable knowledge-based economy.
In the first five-year stage, 2004-2008, more than 11,000 educators and 80,000 students benefited from software and training support from Microsoft, successfully improving education quality with technology. From 2008, more than 12,000 additional educators joined the training, accumulating a total of 3,750 hours of training. In 2017, nearly 150 educators who are passionate about eLearning have joined the Microsoft Innovative Educator Hong Kong Community for further training. Each year, educators who have achieved excellence in using technology to pave the ways for their peers and inspire their students to learn more will be selected to become Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIEE) and get the chance to join the Microsoft Educator Exchange (E2) Global forums to share their experiences with educators around the world.

In 2013, Microsoft's partnership with the Education Bureau entered its third stage (2013-2018) through the signing of a third MOU, with Microsoft continuing to provide innovative technology for the next generation of eLearning. With the new cloud technology (Microsoft Office 365 service), schools can deploy cloud computing, which enables an integrated cloud-based learning platform fit for the next generation of eLearning development. The service will provide support for educators and students to teach and learn anytime, anywhere, and accommodate the trend of adopting mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones in education.
Microsoft will provide Office 365 cloud services to 1,000 primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong for free, benefitting 50,000 teachers and 800,000 students. Up to 2017, more than 60%+ primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong (over 600 schools) have registered the Office 365 cloud services. Through Office 365, Microsoft offers end-to-end solutions covering tools for Flipped Classroom, self-directed learning, sharing and collaboration, and coursework management. This will build up the professional capacity of teachers to enable self-directed learning opportunities for students with information technology empowered by Microsoft. At the same time, the Hong Kong Education Bureau will support Microsoft by connecting with schools and teachers and providing training venues.

Microsoft actively supports the STEM development in Hong Kong. In 2017, Microsoft worked with Hong Kong Education City to co-organize the 2nd Master Code Competition to stimulate student interest to learn coding in their favorite gaming environment Minecraft. The competition has reached over 50 local schools and over 680 educators and students through Minecraft and coding workshops as well as the competition. Students leverage the open world of Minecraft to build their dream smart city using creativity and coding skills.

Key initiatives include:

• Offering online training resources for 50,000 teachers in Hong Kong and promoting overseas exchange through the Microsoft Educator Community 
  
• Providing 10,000 educators with more than 2,000 hours face-to-face eLearning solutions training 
  
• Expanding the Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Program and further developing 100 Certified MIEs to participate in train-the-trainers with their peers, ultimately enabling more than 10,000 teachers to benefit from this program 
  
• Providing 500 IT technicians with more than 200 hours of hands-on technical training

Visit the Programme Website for the lastest training, activities and resources available.

Microsoft GirlSpark Camp 2018, concluded in January 2018, continues to provide an exciting, hands-on series of activities that enable university women to better understand the diversity of career pathways in ICT industry as well as harnessing the power of technology to spark a better future. Co-organized by Microsoft Hong Kong, LinkedIn Hong Kong and The Women’s Foundation, the program has provided:
 

• GirlSpark e-Classroom on the Latest Technologies & Productivity Tools to 500+ female university students
• 4-Day Camp
  - GirlsHack - social innovation competitions with the use of Microsoft technologies
  - Keynotes, Panel Sharing & Small Talk Circles by Industry Elites
• Opportunity Day with Microsoft, LinkedIn and other leading companies to line up job opportunities
• Post-camp Mentorship with mentors from Microsoft HK and other leading companies