Traverse City Record-Eagle

Archive: Friday

March 12, 2010

Editorial: Tech vouchers are timely

Free tech skills vouchers donated to Michigan and other states through Microsoft's "Elevate America" program are good news, any way you look at it.

It's a tech-based world in a state long devoted to auto manufacturing that has moved elsewhere.

Michigan's jobless rate stood at 14.3 percent in January and the nation's at 9.5 percent. The state has lost an estimated 111,000 jobs in the past 12 months, including 26,000 in manufacturing.

More than half of today's jobs require tech skills of some sort, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that number will reach 77 percent in the next decade.

The vouchers are now available in 10 area counties through Northwest Michigan Works!, and they must be activated by April 11. Courses are available for a year after that.

The Elevate America program is part of a Microsoft plan announced a year ago to offer 1 million vouchers over three years to train 2 million workers by 2012. Michigan received 71,000.

The vouchers are designed to help American workers and job seekers become more competitive in a global electronic world by offering expensive online Microsoft courses and work readiness programs. Three types of vouchers are available: "E-learning" for online training in a Microsoft Office Suite program; "exam" vouchers redeemable for a certification exam for the Microsoft Office program; and "IT Professional" vouchers for specific information technology training areas.

Some Microsoft critics view the voucher give-away plan cynically and wonder what the company's true intentions are, given the fact that Microsoft, too, has been laying off workers.

Other tech experts hope Microsoft founder Bill Gates' transformation in recent years from software baron to social philanthropist will provide a role model of social responsibility to other large corporations.

The reality in Michigan is that more and more people need to find a rewarding and sustainable career in our new tech-based word. Microsoft's vouchers come at a crucial time.

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