Bangkok –
20
October
2014 – Microsoft (Thailand) Limited celebrated the beginning of a third year of the company’s global YouthSpark initiative with its commitment to helping young people worldwide create and seize opportunity. At the close of its second year Microsoft YouthSpark has created new opportunities for more than 227 million young people in over 100 countries around the world. In Thailand, the company has worked with government, businesses and nonprofits serving youth to equip more than 16,000 Thai youths aged 16-30 with ICT skills. The company will continuing its efforts through the YouthSpark #WeSpeakCode initiative, which aims to give youths a taste of how accessible coding can be while sparking interest in expanded programming and computer science curricula in schools to promote greater employability for youth in Thailand’s envisaged digital economy.
Microsoft Celebrates 3rd Year of Youth Entrepreneurship with IT through YouthSpark Program
October 19, 2014
Supahrat Juramongkol (Left), Community Affairs Manager, Microsoft (Thailand) Limited and Dr. Kamolrat Intaratat (Right), Chair of the Asia Pacific Telecentre Network (APTN) and Director of CCDKM
Supahrat
Juramongkol, Community Affairs Manager, Microsoft (Thailand) Limited, said, “Since its establishment in Thailand 20 years ago, Microsoft has been committed to improving the lives of Thais through our vision “We Make 70 Million Lives Better”. Under YouthSpark, Microsoft Thailand launched four different programs all aimed at creating opportunities for rural youths across Thailand. The programs initiate fundraising activities, enable technology access, and provide ICT and entrepreneurship skills training and innovative forums. Bridging the digital divide must be a fundamental component of Thailand’s digital economy strategy.”
Ketsaraporn (Gib) Nammultriputtar
October 19, 2014
Ketsaraporn Nammultriputtar, youth entrepreneur and leader from Baan Khok Muang, Amphoe Prakonechai, Buriram
Youth entrepreneur and leader Ketsaraporn Nammultriputtar, a 21-year-old third year student of Faculty of Science, Khonkaen University, from Baan Khok Muang, Amphoe Prakonechai, Buriram shared her story of how Microsoft YouthSpark has changed the lives of her community by allowing a group of local youth to create an online business, Hand-to-Hand Community Group, selling local community-produced volcano-soil dyed fabrics, Thai silk, basketry, and other local products via the internet. Through YouthSpark, Ketsaporn and her colleagues received training in marketing material production with Microsoft Word, basic bookkeeping with Microsoft Excel, and internet marketing with the blogging platform WordPress.
“Microsoft’s YouthSpark program gave us the skills and access to use basic software and the internet to reach a much wider audience than we would otherwise have done. With the growing popularity of our products, and the technology we were trained to use through YouthSpark, we have been able to create networks with other villages to expand our product lines, better manage our marketing and revenues, and grow our distribution. This has in turn brought prosperity to our communities and helped preserve many local handicraft-making skills, while giving us the opportunity to be an agent for change in transferring technologies to neighboring communities,” Ketsaraporn explained.
The YouthSpark training Ketsaraporn received was delivered in partnership with the Research Center of Communication and Development Knowledge Management (CCDKM) of Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, one of key partners of the program. Dr. Kamolrat Intaratat, Chair of the Asia Pacific Telecentre Network (APTN) and Director of CCDKM noted that, “CCDKM has been working with Microsoft for many years to provide ICT knowledge and build youth entrepreneur networks in local communities through ICT Community Centers across Thailand. Microsoft’s YouthSpark program started two years ago and has been instrumental in improving the access, skills, and opportunities for a rising generation of young Thai entrepreneurs and innovators. CCDKM is proud to work with Microsoft to enable youth entrepreneurs to start their own businesses using ICT platforms. The focus on enhancing ICT skills, e-commerce and e-business know-how will see a more productive and competitive Thai workforce especially given Thailand’s vision for a digital economy and the context of AEC.”
Microsoft Celebrates 3rd Year of Youth Entrepreneurship with IT through YouthSpark Program
October 19, 2014
Microsoft delivers several related initiatives under the YouthSpark program intended to promote technical capacity and entrepreneurship among youth around the world. This includes the coding initiative YouthSpark #WeSpeakCode, which aims to improve the digital literacy of millions of youth through training in coding in schools, communities, universities and larger urban hack-a-thons. As the technology sector continues to drive economic growth in Asia, youth with ICT skills will find themselves better qualified for new employment and entrepreneurial activities. According to the study “Connecting to Work” from The World Bank, in India, for example, jobs in the ICT industry pay up to twice what service-sector jobs pay, whereas in the Philippines an entry-level tech job pays, on average, 38 percent more than minimum wage.
“In Microsoft YouthSpark’s third year, Microsoft and our project partners will be hosting a range of activities and events in collaboration with local partners to celebrate YouthSpark #We Speak Code”. “We are proud to continue making a difference, through the passion and commitment of our partners, to bridging the digital divide, fostering digital skills for tomorrow and promoting technology adoption among the small entrepreneurs in the rural areas of Thailand,” concluded Supahrat.
More information
More information can be found at www.microsoft.com/youthsparkhub and http://www.wespeakcode.net/default.aspx
Information about Hand To Hand can be found at http://handtohandgroups.wordpress.com and https://www.facebook.com/handtohandbykhokmuang
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For further information, (press) please contact:
Pornravee Suramool or Apin Sicoravit
Hill+Knowlton Strategies Thailand
Tel: 0-2627-3501 ext. 110, 118 or 081-735-9213, 081-648-8430
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]