Microsoft YouthSpark Initiative Celebrates Big Anniversary

Microsoft YouthSpark: Over the years, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has made it well known that it cares about more than making money. The company has put a lot of time, effort, and funds into global initiatives, such as YouthSpark.

Earlier this week, the Microsoft YouthSpark program celebrated its one year anniversary. This is big news for the company, as the program “aims to create opportunities for 300 million youth in more than 100 countries by 2015.”

One Year of Success

Many organizations would love to have as much success as MSFT has had with YouthSpark. Over the first year, the company created opportunities for more than 100 million youths from one side of the world to the next.

As if that is not good enough, Microsoft is taking the initiative to the next level throughout the expansion of TEALS (Technology Education and Literacy in Schools).

Lori Forte Harnick, general manager of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Microsoft, shared her excitement with the world saying, “The economic and societal challenges facing youth around the world loom larger than ever with the youth unemployment rate expected to click upward to 12.8 percent by 2018 as forecasted by the International Labour Organization’s report, ‘Global Employment Trends for Youth 2013’”

As you can see, young people are going to be faced with many challenges in the years to come. While Microsoft may not be able to help each and every one of these people obtain a job, for example, through YouthSpark the company is doing its best.

To help the younger generation obtain the technical skills necessary to succeed in the business world, Microsoft launched a digital literacy curriculum for Office 2013. With this, young people around the globe have free access to a system that will help them learn the finer details of word processing, spreadsheets, creating presentations, and much more.

If you want to learn more about YouthSpark and how it is changing the world, head over to the Microsoft News Center and check out this press release. You will soon realize that MSFT is doing everything it can to prepare the youth of today for what the future holds.

It is programs like this that help keep consumers and investors excited about what the company is doing. These hedge fund managers continue to invest heavily in Microsoft: William Duhamel, James Litinsky, Jeffrey Ubben, Kelly Cardwell, and Sandy Nairn.

How do you feel about the future of the Microsoft YouthSpark initiative?

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Disclosure: none