Aspiring to enhance skills for employability, Microsoft has now announced its collaboration with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to skill more than 1 lakh underserved women in India over the next 10 months under Skill India Mission. This initiative is an extension of Microsoft’s partnership with NSDC to provide digital skills to over 1 lakh youth in the country.

The partnership is focused on enhancing women’s workforce participation by equipping underserved young women from rural communities with the skills required to thrive in a digital economy. As part of the collaboration, more than 70 hours of course content will be made available free of cost, covering topics such as digital literacy, enhancing employability, nano entrepreneurship, and communication skills.

Talking about the collaboration, Dr. Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC, said, “NSDC is nurturing a conducive ecosystem in which women across formal and informal sectors get access to appropriate skill development opportunities. Mainstreaming of content, delivery of training and use of digital platforms are key to increasing participation of women. Our partnership with Microsoft will help in economic empowerment of women.”

Under this partnership, eSkill India, NSDC’s digital skilling initiative, will support in building the outreach of this engagement through its skilling ecosystem which includes sector skill councils, training partners, and training centres.

Microsoft and NSDC will award a joint e-certificate to participants post course completion. Furthermore, 20,000 young women from regions with least female labor force participation will be selected by NSDC and skilled  through a dedicated skills for employability training program for employment in IT/IT enabled job roles.

The partnership with NSDC is an extension of Microsoft’s global skilling initiative to help 25 million people worldwide acquire new digital skills needed for the COVID-19 economy and part of Microsoft India’s ongoing commitment to support young women for a career in technology.