ASEAN Foundation and Microsoft Launch a Joint Initiative to Create a Generation of Future-Ready ASEAN Youth
14 March 2019 - 6:00PM
JCN Newswire (English)
Indonesia, Mar 14, 2019 - (ACN Newswire) - The ASEAN Foundation and
Microsoft today announced the launch of the ASEAN Digital
Innovation Programme, aimed at equipping underserved ASEAN youth
aged 15 to 35 with future-ready skills.
ASEAN's future depends on its youth
Youth, who account for more than 33% of ASEAN's population,
undoubtedly play a key role in bringing the region closer to its
aspirations as outlined in the ASEAN Community blueprints. All ten
ASEAN Member States have intensified their efforts to develop and
empower youth under the realization that the future of ASEAN is in
the hands of its youth as they become ASEAN's future leaders and
catalysts for economic, social and cultural development.
However, the first ASEAN Youth Development Index (ASEAN YDI)
conducted in 2016 revealed a worrying trend. The ASEAN YDI serves
as a key instrument of the ASEAN Work Plan on Youth 2016-2020 in
formulating evidence-based policy and planning youth development
programmes in the region. It indicated that the youth unemployment
ratio of the region has reached an alarming figure of 6.4 over the
2011 to 2015 period, meaning that youth were 6.4 times more likely
to be unemployed than their adult counterparts in the labour
force.
Preparing ASEAN youth for industrial revolution 4.0
The ASEAN Digital Innovation Programme aims to reach 46,000
underserved youth in seven ASEAN countries (Cambodia, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam) and
equip them with digital skills to enable them to thrive in the
fourth industrial revolution. To achieve this objective, local
partners from each of the seven countries will be brought in to
deliver capacity building workshops for over 500 educators by
harnessing a specifically developed learning module.
Following the implementation of the workshops, a regional
blog-making competition for youth from 10 ASEAN Member States will
take place at the end of the year. The competition will challenge
ASEAN's youth to create a blog on ASEAN-wide sustainability
challenges. Besides the competition, another key milestone of the
programme will be an integrated website, which will be launched in
April this year. The website will serve not only as the foremost
e-learning platform for underserved youth in ASEAN to deepen their
digital skills, but also as medium to spread ASEAN's awareness
among youth.
Yvonne Thomas, Director of the Global Digital Skills program,
Microsoft Philanthropies shared "At Microsoft, we strongly believe
that technology can be a force for social and economic inclusion.
By equipping young people with digital skills, we're increasing
their economic opportunities while also addressing the talent
shortage faced by industries as they digitally transform. With the
ASEAN Digital Innovation Programme, we are committed to building
the capacity of the ASEAN Foundation and its local training
partners to equip underserved youth - in particular young women -
for the future of work. Through high-quality and equitable computer
science education, youth will develop creativity, critical
thinking, and problem-solving skills - essential attributes for
them to thrive across all sectors."
Realizing the goals of ASEAN Community
One of the visions of the ASEAN education sector is to promote a
community that acknowledges the importance of youth as the future
of ASEAN, and one with an enhanced awareness of ASEAN as a region.
This vision is aligned with what the programme is aiming to achieve
through its combination of interventions.
Furthermore, the ASEAN Digital Innovation Programme will also play
a significant role in achieving the goals as laid out in the ASEAN
Work Plan on Youth 2016-2020, and, by extension, the ASEAN
Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint 2025, especially from the way
the programme strives to (1) sustain the focus on youth
entrepreneurship through structured capacity building and mentoring
programmes, (2) enhance youth employability through skills training
and life-long education, (3) enhance awareness and appreciation of
an ASEAN community through mutually beneficial people-to-people
exchange programmes, and (4) increase youth competencies and
resilience with advanced technological and managerial skills.
"We're happy to announce that the ASEAN Foundation has joined hands
with Microsoft in implementing a regional programme that aims to
equip ASEAN youth with digital skills that are critically necessary
in the current day and age," said Elaine Tan, the Executive
Director of ASEAN Foundation. "We hope that this partnership will
also highlight a meaningful engagement and collaboration that can
take place among different stakeholders to develop a regional
initiative by working together in achieving sustainable development
that can bring tangible impact to the ASEAN Community."
About ASEAN Foundation
Three decades after ASEAN was established, ASEAN leaders recognised
that: there remained inadequate shared prosperity, ASEAN awareness
and contact among the people of ASEAN. It was of this concern that
ASEAN leaders established ASEAN Foundation in Jakarta, Indonesia,
at ASEAN's 30th Anniversary Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 15
December 1997. The ASEAN Foundation is an organisation from and for
the people of ASEAN. The Foundation exists because of one vision:
to build a cohesive and prosperous ASEAN Community. As an ASEAN
body, the Foundation is tasked to support ASEAN mainly in promoting
awareness, identity, interaction and development of the people of
ASEAN.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) is the leading platform and
productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and
its mission is to empower every person and every organization on
the planet to achieve more.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Anthoni Octaviano (anthoni.octaviano@aseanfoundation.org)
Delphine Gunther (a-delphg@microsoft.com)
Source: MicrosoftASEAN Foundation
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