Microsoft partnership with FIT

Despite being amid a technological revolution, empowering individuals with the appropriate digital skills remains our greatest challenge.

The number of young people who are pursuing STEM careers is steadily decreasing; and only half of all students who do choose STEM courses end up in STEM careers. Furthermore, we are also in the midst of a skills gap, by 2022 it is estimated that there will be 6.2 million new IT jobs unfilled and only 2% of candidates are expected to have the right qualifications to fill these roles.   

There is a lot of discussion about how best to attract individuals to undertake programmes of studies with a focus on digital skills. In particular, increase participation of those who are currently under-represented in STEM fields (i.e. females and socio-economically disadvantaged groups) is a key challenge.

To address this growing crisis, StepIn2Tech is a new programme developed by Microsoft, in partnership with FIT, that will provide digital literacy skills to more than 10,000 people over the next two years. Whether temporarily or permanently displaced from employment, recently left school or college, or mid-career and looking for digital qualifications, StepIn2Tech will provide you with much sought after technical skills that will open up a range of new opportunities – from further training and education to gain an entry level role in the growing technology sector, to helping to drive digital transformation in a traditional sector.