Microsoft helps speed up digital shift

MANILA, Philippines — Microsoft Philippines expects to achieve its goal to positively impact 25 million Filipinos under an initiative to accelerate digital transformation and upskilling ahead of the three-year time frame, with the pandemic highlighting the need to use digital solutions.

Microsoft Philippines public sector director Joanna Rodriguez said when the company crafted its goal under the Microsoft Para Sa Bayan initiative about a year and a half ago, they initially thought it was going to be difficult to achieve.

“But the pandemic gave us the opportunity to really fast-track the impact,” she said.

Launched last year, the Microsoft Para Sa Bayan initiative is the firm’s nation-building agenda which seeks to bring positive change for 25 million Filipinos over a three-year period by stimulating digital transformation in organizations – whether public or private, building coalitions for responsible innovation, and digital skilling to close skills gap and enhance employability of individuals.

The Microsoft Para Sa Bayan has already reached 18.4 million individuals in terms of positive impact.

“When we set 25 million [goal], we were being ambitious, but we always knew that if we reach that number, we’ll keep going anyway because our Para sa Bayan plan is really what’s grounding us and things we commit to in initiative is not something we will stop anyway,” Rodriguez said.

To achieve the goal, Microsoft has been forging partnerships with different organizations, both from the government and the private sector.

Among the partnerships forged by Microsoft is with the Department of Trade and Industry and business organizations, which include the Makati Business Club and Infocomm Technology Association of the Philippines for the AI Pilipinas Coalition, to push for the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in key industries, including retail and manufacturing, and even in government.

Microsoft has also entered into partnerships for upskilling, given the increasing use of ICT tools.

Other partnerships forged for upskilling is with the Department of Education to enable teachers to use ICT for online learning, as well as with the Department of Information and Communications Technology to provide free training on ICT literacy, cybersecurity courses, and even AI for government employees.

Microsoft also has a partnership with the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines to enhance employee ICT skills.

Rodriguez said Microsoft is in talks with the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) for a partnership for digital skills training, which is expected to be launched within the year.

She said based on discussions with ECOP, member companies see the need to upskill employee candidates as many of them lack ICT skills.

“It’s as simple as using the Office suite, the Cloud, the Microsoft Office 365 Suite, and we have the arsenal in terms of training and it will help out the prospective employers when they start feeding the companies that belong to this confederation with the talent, with the ICT skill talent, ICT ready candidate,” she said.

She said Microsoft has a strong focus on upskilling not only in response to the pandemic, but also to help the workforce have better chances of employability.