In a bid to bridge the widening skill gap, Microsoft on Monday announced expansion of the capabilities of its Cloud-powered "Project Sangam" to the Middle East and Africa.

Launched in India by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella last year, "Project Sangam" is a Cloud-hosted platform that leverages Azure services and professional networking platform LinkedIn to support new entrants to the job market, enabling key stakeholders across the skilling ecosystem find the right talent.

"Lack of skilled resources is one of the key issues that governments across the world are facing. There is an enormous scope for technology to come in to address the skill gap that exists in the workforce today," Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Cloud & Enterprise, said in a statement.

Nadella launched "Project Sangam" to help the Indian government not only train but also assist people get jobs via LinkedIn that was acquired by the company for $26.2 billion in an all-cash deal in 2016. "Project Sangam" was commenced from Andhra Pradesh.

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"'Sangam' is the first project that wields the combined strength of LinkedIn and Microsoft to tackle the challenge of how to provide every person the opportunity to skill themselves," added Bhansali who is also Managing Director of Microsoft India (R&D) Private Limited. As part of the expansion, Microsoft South Africa and the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) have launched "Thint'iMillion", an online mass learning system.

Part of the "Tshepo 1Million Digital Mass" learning programme, the "Thint'iMillion" programme will be deployed on "Project Sangam", allowing young people to access content via an on-phone app (Android only), tablet mode (Windows and Android) as well as an interactive web portal. IANS