RIT Croatia students and employees to gain new digital skills that will make them more competitive

Zagreb, 27^th October 2021

RIT Croatia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Microsoft that will enable members of RIT Croatia community to gain digital skills that are key for the development of their career paths. RIT Croatia will promote Microsoft digital skilling initiative that enables its academic network to acquire the most demanded skills and to be prepared for the most jobs in demand globally, like data analyst, graphic designer, or AI practitioner. During the past 15 months almost 30,000 people in Croatia used the opportunity to engage with free online learning to develop key digital skills and to become more competitive in the labor market in Croatia and abroad.

The pandemic completely changed the business model, and all global industries were forced to turn towards digitalization. The labor market also transformed - some workplaces disappeared, lots of people lost their jobs, and millions of people around the globe are working remotely. Hybrid work is here to stay, and jobs today demand a new set of digital skills. Most jobs in high demand (according to LinkedIn) require specific knowledge and upskilling. Microsoft's global initiative is aimed towards all the people looking for skilling, either during their quest for the new job or to upgrade their existing skills to better perform at their job. Microsoft's skilling initiative offers free learning via three platforms, online and per-demand, enabling learners to plan sessions in accordance with their schedule.

"RIT is known for the quality of its career-oriented education worldwide, and our goal at RIT Croatia is to prepare our students for jobs of today and of the future. We are living in a very dynamic world driven by the 4^th industrial revolution, which impacts how we work and live, and how we teach and learn as well. In today's world, the education should transform into a system of quality lifelong learning, and we are committed to creating contemporary and excellent learning experiences for our students. We are pleased to support this initiative as it tackles the hot topic of the digital skills gap. As a great addition to our own learning platforms and tools, I am confident that it will help our students successfully prepare for their future careers," said Don Hudspeth, President and Dean of RIT Croatia, a global campus of a prominent US university Rochester Institute of Technology.

Almost 30.000 Croats gained new digital skills during the past 18 months, which ranks Croatia as 77^th globally and 7^thin the Central and Eastern Europe region.

" Croatia is becoming increasingly competitive in the field of AI and now is a perfect time to embrace new learnings. In addition to new knowledge, students can also acquire internationally recognized Microsoft certificates, which will make it easier for them to find a job and give them a better starting position in negotiating employment conditions," commented Tatjana Skoko, country manager, Microsoft Croatia.

Microsoft's global initiative was launched in July 2020, and includes free learning on three platforms: LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, and the GitHub Learning Lab. Until December 31, 2021, all participants can register for free and choose the modules they are interested in, and if they want to formalize their knowledge and become more competitive for potential employers, by the end of the year they can prepare for and take the Microsoft certification exam at a special price of 15 USD.

More information on global initiative can be find via Microsoft web site: news.microsoft.com/skills