Macedonian pupils and high school students will develop entrepreneurial skills by using new tools, designed by the US company Microsoft. The skills they are about to acquire should help them in launching their own businesses or joining the private and state sector.

This is one of the opportunities envisaged under the cooperation memorandum, signed Monday by Minister of Information Society Ivo Ivanovski and Microsoft’s General Manager for Central and Eastern Europe, Adriana Boersma.

“The memorandum offers a comprehensive, joint and public-private partnership for educational improvement, whose strategic goals are learning development, stimulating future innovations and development of 21^st-century skills and qualifications. Through this document, we will cooperate and focus on creating Microsoft innovative schools and innovative teachers, development of an IT academy, certification programs and many other activities of common interest,” said Minister Ivanovski.

Due to the need to improve the access and use of ICT in elementary and high school education, attempts will be made to improve ICT access and use to support courses and learning, according to him.

“We aim at encouraging young people to have at a disposal more opportunities for education, employment and entrepreneurship. Our partnership is dedicated to helping young people to use these opportunities through Microsoft programs in order to acquire skills, prepare for future jobs and open their own businesses,” added Ivanovski.

A limited number of teachers and students will be able to attend trainings after applying and meeting several conditions.

The objective of the memorandum is to transform education, introduce new innovations and develop better skills by training teachers and leaders in education, according to Adriana Boersma, Microsoft’s CEE General Manager.

Information technologies, she noted, can play a key role in transforming education and promoting lifelong learning. “To allow this to happen, teachers need an access to ICT-based curricula. It will enable them to create a richer and more personalized access to learning. They also need an advanced software infrastructure in a bid to improve their efficiency and productivity,” stated Boersma.