The world's biggest software corporation and Hong Kong's largest student federation launched an initiative last week to provide free IT training for disadvantaged youths in Hong Kong.
Microsoft has teamed up with the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, a non-government agency that specialises in youth services, to set up a wireless community-based technology learning centre, the first of its kind in Hong Kong.
The centre is located at the federation's Tsuen Wan Youth SPOT (Space for Participation, Opportunities and Training), dubbed Cyber SPOT, where 1,000 young people aged 15 to 35 will be able to take free courses on computer networking, programming and word-processing.
The federation is one of 82 non-profit organisations from around the world included in the first round of the software giant's $7.7 billion global initiative, 'Unlimited Potential', a five-year project started last month to help communities enhance their technological know-how and 'realise their potential'.
'It's an obligation for all multinationals to give back to the community,' said Robbie Ray Wright, director of the business marketing organisation at Microsoft Hong Kong. The project was part of the corporation's outreach programme and was not a sales and marketing programme, he added.
The Tsuen Wan Cyber SPOT is the first of three local groups to benefit from the $2 million Microsoft has allocated to Hong Kong. The identity of the other two centres would be announced later this year, Mr Wright said.