An initiative to improve the IT skills of 100,000 disadvantaged Scots by 2010, with the aim of helping them to find long-term employment,has been unveiled.
In an innovative partnership, learndirect scotland and industry giants Microsoft and Cisco will team up to improve the employability of hard-to-reach individuals and address the demand by employers for staff with high level IT skills.
The Industry Alliance for Jobs initiative, announced as part of the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum, aims to build on the capacity of local learning centres in the learndirect scotland branded network to deliver high quality, industry-led training.
“We believe that this will lead to higher skilled and higher paid employment opportunities for young people, the long-term unemployed and those who are economically inactive,” said Damien Yeates, chief executive of learndirect scotland.
“We are committed to working with our partners to ensure that highly marketable IT skills are delivered through demand-led learning provision. Our commitment is to provide access to IT training for 100,000 disadvantaged individuals by 2010.”
A range of IT courses, from basic skills to high level technical courses, are already provided by the learndirect scotland learning centre network. The initiative will build on that infrastructure to enable the centres to meet the skills needs of individuals and business.
Nine of the 500-plus centres in the network are Microsoft and Cisco Academies, delivering industry-recognised qualifications. The partners will work to increase this capacity to 100 centres by 2010.
learndirect scotland will identify centres with the potential to deliver industry standard curriculum based on their readiness, learner and local employer demand and physical location. Microsoft and Cisco will contribute to establishing this strong, integrated delivery platform.
Director of Cisco Scotland, Gordon Thomson, said: “learndirect scotland's approach, reputation and coverage gives Cisco's Network Academy Program a wider and more evenly balanced footprint across Scotland, especially in reaching communities and hard-to-reach learners to deliver the skills needs of future employers.”
Steve Beswick, Director of Education, Microsoft said: “At Microsoft, we place skills at the heart of our organisation and have invested in developing a global programme of IT academies. We believe that this public private partnership with learndirect scotland will provide a great opportunity to many people across Scotland, to ensure they have access to the relevant skills, and further contributing to the ongoing success of the Scottish economy.”
A DVD and a publication, Industry Alliance for Jobs, have been produced by the partners to demonstrate how learning centres throughout Scotland are already helping individuals to achieve the industry-recognised skills demanded by employers.
For copies, please e-mail enquiries@learndirectscotland.com
The publication can also be downloaded in pdf format.
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