Train future AI craftsmen
Aware of the need to act and convinced that the employment opportunities generated by AI should not be reserved for an elite, in March 2018 Microsoft created the first Microsoft AI School at the Issy Campus. les-Moulineaux in collaboration with the social and solidarity enterprise Simplon.
Today, scattered throughout the territory, these schools address people who are far from employment and allow them to benefit from a free specialization to become an “Artificial Intelligence Developer”.
This program comes in two phases:
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- 7 months of intensive training dedicated to code and AI technologies
- 12 months of work-study training for each of the students thanks to a professionalization contract with a Microsoft partner company.
Committed to diversity and inclusion, Microsoft also supports the presence of underrepresented target groups in IT professions. In addition to recruitment, which is intended to be systematically open to all, two courses are adapted for all promotions:
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- Feminine Ambition: a campaign made up of 80% women, inaugurated in 2019
- Atypical intelligence: a class that included 15 neuroatypical students, inaugurated in 2020.
The key figures
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- A network of 37 schools spread over 11 French regions
- More than 700 students have been educated since 2018
- 275 partner companies
Hackers
To give more women access to digital professions, Microsoft supports the SAS Hackeuses program, which is run by the social and solidarity organization Simplon.
A training program – spanning 6 to 7 weeks – upstream of a professional training course to enable women to discover the career opportunities offered by digital technology. From 2022, Microsoft has partnered with the launch of the program in 4 cities: Issy-les-Moulineaux, Toulouse, Lyon and Bordeaux. SAS Hackeuses supports students in defining their professional project by introducing them to a first programming language and offering them mentorship with digital professionals. As a continuation of this initiation, students can continue their journey by becoming more professional with Microsoft IA School by Simplon.
Promoting equal opportunities in cloud businesses
In the cloud, companies are looking for new qualified profiles to support their transformation, but face a shortage of talent. This is what prompted Microsoft and Simplon to develop training courses dedicated to innovative professions, to meet the needs of businesses in the regions while promoting return to employment and inclusive recruitment.
After the IA schools, Microsoft France and its partner Simplon have thus once again teamed up to offer a training program for Cloud subjects, aimed at people far from employment.
Microsoft Cloud School from Simplon is available free of charge to students, regardless of diploma or technical knowledge, and promotes equal opportunities.
Two choices of educational paths
Two courses, free for students, are offered, Cloud Developer or Cloud Administrator FinOps specialty, depending on the recruitment needs of companies in the targeted area:
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- The Cloud Developer course, implemented in December 2020 in Aulnay-sous-Bois and Castelnau-le-Lez, offers a period of 6 months of intensive training followed by a year in a professionalization contract. 29 students were selected without technical prerequisites on the basis of their motivation and their ability to project themselves into employment.
- The Cloud Administrator course, a training course of 4 months of intensive courses followed by 15 months of work study, meeting the criteria for the Level 6 professional title DevOps system administrator, registered in the National Register of Professional Certifications since December 1, 2021.
The first two campaigns of Cloud developers started in Ile-de-France and Occitanie in December 2020. With respectively 20% and 38% of students without professional activity for more than 12 months, the campaigns from Aulnay-sous-Bois and Castelnau- le -Lez is part of a dynamic of inclusion and support for employability.
Train the future talent in enterprise application programming
In 2021, Microsoft inaugurated an inclusive and professional school dedicated to the development and mastery of business applications: the Business Apps School. Created in collaboration with Social Builder and WebForce3, this school tends to reduce the digital divide and turn training into a lever for inclusion.
Available to job seekers (minimum bac+2) who want to become a designer and developer of applications, the main purpose of the Business Apps school is to open access to new professions for people undergoing retraining to meet skills needs. and new business challenges in companies undergoing digitization and organizational transformation.
The DNA of the project is based on the diversity and inclusiveness of the profiles in the digital sector to contribute to more inclusive technology and a healthy and sustainable working environment for everyone. Increasing the number of women in the digital ecosystem is also a major ambition.
The school puts its values of inclusion and diversity at the center of its practice by training the entire ecosystem (educational teams, partners) in inclusive work practices.
A 100% professionalizing program designed for inclusive technology
The Business Apps school is structured around 2 pillars: a HUMAN skill pillar that enables the acquisition of basic professional skills and posture (especially to contribute to inclusive technology), and an APPS skill pillar that enables the acquisition of the basic business techniques, but also fundamentally in terms of accessibility and inclusion of applications. Its active pedagogy and guidance from professionals places the learner at the center of the system and thus ensures a successful and lasting social-professional integration.
Another specificity of this school is its 100% professionalization program: 6 months of training (supported by Pôle Emploi), followed by a 12-month professionalization contract in a Microsoft partner company. After the validation of the achievements and the acquisition of the title, the student may be offered a job offer at a CDD/CDI.