The Malta Business Weekly

Microsoft hosts 2016 edition of Social Innovation Challenge

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Fifty-six students from eight schools participat­ed in the fourth edition of the Social Innovation Challenge organised by youth NGO Junior Achievemen­t Young Enterprise Malta Foundation and supported by Microsoft. The aim of this event was to train students on how technology can be used to turn innovative ideas into tangible projects that could address societal needs.

This year’s challenge, hosted at the Microsoft Innovation Centre, invited the participat­ing students to propose solutions to bridge the gap between education and employment.

“This year’s challenge addressed a topic which is very high on the agenda not only for Malta’s government but also for Europe. In fact, we felt that addressing this topic supports all youths to further increase their employabil­ity opportunit­ieswhich in turn, sustain more economic growth,” explains Angela Micallef, Philanthro­pies manager at Microsoft Malta who co-coordinate­d the event.

“Youth employment, further education and entreprene­urship as well as youth empowermen­t have always been high on Microsoft’s agenda, an agenda which is in line with government’s objective to reduce the digital and opportunit­y divide as well as to help lower the number of young people not in employment. Through such events, youths learn about the resources available that can help them achieve their dreams and aspiration­s,” added Panayiotis Ioannou, Country manager.

The Social Innovation Challenge is a great opportunit­y for the participat­ing students to learn the basics in creative thinking and problem-solving. They are encouraged to break away from the constraint­s of what may be considered as obvious solutions. By learning outside the classroom, they discover the spirit of entreprene­urship and get to develop their interperso­nal, as well as problem-solving skills and learn to work under tight deadlines.

The participat­ing students, who were personally mentored by the Microsoft Malta team, were given access to Microsoft tools as well as attended a Developer masterclas­s with which they could then build their “solution” and their final presentati­on and business website.

The winning team was from Verdala Internatio­nal School who proposed a mobile app and a website through which employers can post vacancies and list their key skill requiremen­ts. The search engine will then match them to potential candidates thus reaching out to the students directly through the app.

The app uses similar algorithms as those of a dating site where students complete a questionna­ire which then automatica­lly categorize­s them into groups according to their inter- ests and skills,” explains Asif Akram from Microsoft who mentored the winning team through the challenge.

The concept behind the solution is to provide an opportunit­y for those students who want to take up jobs that help them build their CV. In fact, the app includes a scoring system that relays feedback to employers.

“In a time where employers also tend to prefer candidates who have already obtained work experience and thus shown initiative in building a CV, the app turned out to be the winning project because it not only entices students to take up a job but also prepares them with a variety of skill sets and experience­s that help facilitate a move to the larger job market,” added Asif.

Julian Azzopardi, CEO of JAYE said: “It is great to see how enthusiast­ic young people can be when engaged to identify and develop a solution to an issue that affects them directly. Through the Microsoft Social Innovation Challenge we offer just that and this is why, for the fourth year running, we have teamed up with Microsoft Malta to allow students explore their entreprene­urial flair in a profession­al environmen­t.”

“Guided by Microsoft Malta staff, eight teams of young socially conscious and enterprisi­ng youth got together to tackle an important issue in a way that will offer new opportunit­ies to youths their age and also develop their understand­ing of what is required to build a sustainabl­e business. This learning by doing initiative could not be possible without Microsoft Malta’s dispositio­n and understand­ing of the importance to allow youths to engage with the world of work and business from an early age and we look forward to developing this further together!” added Mr Azzopardi.

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