HP provides funds to deliver specific business IT training for graduates and young unemployed

Global Citizenship

Supporting information:

Improving the chances of young people in underserved regions to find employment and equip them with the skills to set up their own business is one of the key elements of HP’s social investment strategy. This is why we have added another programme as part of our economic development strategy to deliver training through a number of local partners.

On 3 May we announced a collaborative programme with social NGOs in 18 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The programme called ‘Graduate Entrepreneurship Training through IT’ (GET-IT) is designed to improve business IT skills of young unemployed school leavers and graduates. Up to 6,000 young people could benefit from the training in the first 12 months.

The GET-IT programme builds on HP’s experience with the HP Microenterprise Acceleration Programme (MAP) in EMEA and focuses on improving IT-related business skills among people below the age of 25. This initiative responds to the need to encourage job creation and entrepreneurship among people below the age of 25, of whom 5 million (18 percent) were unemployed in the EU in 2006.

Both programmes – GET IT and MAP – are run in collaboration with the Micro-Enterprise Acceleration Institute (MEA-I), a non-profit organisation, sponsored by HP, that provides business-related IT training in collaboration with local partners.

GET-IT will be integrated into the existing training initiatives of up to 35 non-profit organisations throughout EMEA that are already active in job creation and many of them are already involved in running the Microenterprise Acceleration Programme (MAP).

GET-IT training courses will deal with practical IT solutions for daily business challenges faced in areas such as finance, human resources, marketing, communications and technology management. Each organisation will receive the IT equipment needed for the training, in addition to the learning material and training of trainers. The grants are worth approximately US$ 40,000 per organisation. 

Job opportunities for young people
“HP believes that young people can play a greater role in micro-enterprise development which is one of the best ways to create jobs,” said Gabi Zedlmayer, Vice President of Global Citizenship, HP EMEA. “This training will offer them a taste of professional life, making the transition from education to business much easier.”

GET-IT provides young unemployed people and graduates aged 16-25 with IT training to enable them to solve everyday business and IT challenges and to enhance their chances of finding a job or to set up a successful business of their own.

HP wants to promote the development of Entrepreneurship and Microenterprise skills within underserved communities through increased access and greater capabilities to make full use of information and communications technologies (ICT).

Business application of IT
The Technology Tools (T-Tools) course is a key element of the GET-IT programme. Working with selected local charities that will deliver the T-Tools training, HP and MEA-I provides guidance, some technical support and equipment for these organisations to help them deliver the course to a consistently high standard.

T-Tools addresses the gap between business and IT courses with a range of modules that explore common business challenges and demonstrate how different IT solutions can help to address some of these challenges.

At the end of the course, students are able to understand the benefits of a wide range of ICT solutions and will have the skills and understanding to address a number of different business challenges through ICT in areas such as management, operations, finance, communication and marketing. Students are also in a better position to evaluate their own skills and to identify areas of further training and development needed for themselves.

May 2007 issue

Global Citizenship Reports 2006 (*)

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