At the Government Leaders Forum—Americas in Miami today, Microsoft Corp. announced new and expanded partnerships that will play a strong role in transforming education and creating economic opportunity in Latin America. The company is collaborating with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Organization of American States (OAS) to extend the reach and impact of Partnership in Opportunities for Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA), a program created by the Trust for the Americas nonprofit affiliate of the Organization of American States to help people with disabilities and at-risk youth across Latin America with technology skills training. Microsoft is also announcing an extended partnership with the Bradesco Foundation to create a School Technology Innovation Center (STIC). The STIC will be focused on the development and research of new educational approaches, classroom solutions and products to improve educational outcomes in Brazil.

Microsoft and the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) from the IDB are announcing their joint effort to support POETA through a $4 million (U.S.) joint fund that will help increase the involvement of the private sector and improve job placement rates for people with disabilities in Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico and Peru for three years. By the end of 2011, it is expected that the job placement rate will be 40 percent, with 10,000 people with disabilities trained and ready to enter the work force, and more than 700 companies linked to the program.