South Africa – South African students will get free Microsoft Office 365 Access after Digital SA Nation (SAtion)announced a collaboration with Microsoft South Africa to introduce a Digital Skills Hub that will promote digital literacy, skills transfer and upskilling, and close the digital divide in the country.
“The digital economy creates the ideal opportunity for job creation,” says Lillian Barnard, General Manager, Microsoft South Africa. It also spurs innovation, boosts economic growth, and supports long-term competitiveness“, she adds.
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The Microsoft, Digital SA Nation partnership will provide opportunities that enable South African youth to effectively operate in the digital space and equip them with skills that will improve their chances of securing employment.
The SAtion Digital Skills Hub will host three initiatives; the Global Skills Initiative, Mahala, and Microsoft Cloud Society. Each initiative will offer different opportunities for all South Africans to acquire digital skills. This includes the youth, unemployed, small, medium, and micro-enterprises (SMEs), and even government officials.
How to Get Microsoft’s Office 365 for free
South Africans aged 8 to 24 years can now sign up for the full Microsoft Office 365 free of charge which is made possible via the Mahala initiative.
Step 1
- Click to go to this portal on your computer or mobile phone.
Step 2
- Scroll down to register & complete all the fields.
- Read the Terms and Conditions, tick the box indicating you have, and that someone older than 18 has completed or assisted in registration.
- Click “SIGN ME UP”
Step 3
- You’ll receive your welcome email to your Personal Email Inbox, with your Mahala.ms username and password.
Use these details to get your copy of Office and OneDrive. - The email contains links to the Mobile Apps for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. You can also download them directly from your phone’s App Store.
- Windows and Mac users can log into http://portal.office.com and click “Install Office365 to get the Desktop & Laptop versions of Office and OneDrive.
Once you’re signed up and verified, you will then get access to the licenses to Microsoft Office 365 suite and free 5TB OneDrive cloud-based storage.
Providing access to programs such as Word, PowerPoint or Excel, which are common in the modern workplace, ensures that young people are equipped with basic digital literacy skills that are essential to get them employed or self-employed
– Microsoft
If you are interested in cloud computing and looking to learn and grow, the Microsoft Cloud Society initiative helps you identify and engage with passionate and influential cloud computing-focused experts from the industry. You also get free online training and free or subsidized vouchers to take certification exams.
Through the Global Skills Initiative unemployed or economically disadvantaged South Africans can acquire skills and certification for in-demand jobs. These include roles such as software engineer, data analyst, customer service specialist, and more.
