Microsoft to drive skill development with Azure-powered solution

Reinforcing its commitment to bridge the widening skill gap, Microsoft is expanding the capabilities of its Project Sangam to emerging markets across India, Middle East, and Africa.

Project Sangam, first launched in India, is a cloud-hosted platform that leverages Azure services and the power of LinkedIn to support new entrants to the job market and enable key stakeholders across the skilling ecosystem including candidates, training organisations, employers and the government.

As part of the expansion, Microsoft South Africa and the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) recently launched Thint'iMillion, an online mass learning system, as part of the Tshepo 1Million Digital Mass learning programme. The Thint'iMillion programme will be deployed on Project Sangam allowing young people to access content via an on-phone app (Android only), tablet mode (Windows and Android) as well as an interactive web portal.

Through the wider Tshepo 1Million initiative, GPG aims to provide one million young jobseekers with skills to make them more employable.

"Our vision is to empower every organization and individual to achieve more, and this is clearly a step in that direction. Lack of skilled resources is one of the key issues that governments across the world are facing. There is an enormous scope for technology to come in to address the skill gap that exists in the work force today," said Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Private Limited.

"Sangam was envisioned because of what we observed in India, however its relevance spans across geographies. It is the first project that wields the combined strength of LinkedIn and Microsoft to tackle the challenge of how to provide every person the opportunity to skill themselves for the jobs that are going to be available in the future," he added.