Today, Microsoft in the UK launched a fairly ambitious campaign called 'Britain Works' to help 500,000 people into work by 2012. There's a bunch of ways we'll be looking to do that:

A new national IT apprenticeship - with 700 new Apprenticeships by the end of this year and 3,000 by 2012.

Millions of pounds of training vouchers for targeted skills training.

A job matching service called MSEmploy (matching vacancies with skilled applicants).

Partnering with NGOs.

Continuing to deliver on programmes that support start-ups such as BizSpark.

If you're interested in the detail, take a look at the Britain Works site and you can even call the helpline on 0800 111 4341.

 

I feel pretty good about this particular effort from my employer. Nice work gang.