HP opens 20 Tech Hubs in Southeast Asia to empower youths with the skills of the future
It has been said that youths are the future of the nation and HP Inc is investing in the future as they have announced plans to establish 20 Tech Hubs to serve underprivileged communities across Southeast Asia by the end of 2020.
These 20 Tech Hubs will provide critical technology and entrepreneurship training for students aged 13 years and above, with a goal to upskill 10,000 youths by the end of the year which is in tandem with HP’s staunch commitment to enable better learning outcomes for 100 million people by 2025 based on their HP 2019 Sustainable Impact Report.
Each of the HP Tech Hubs will be equipped with 15 to 20 new HP PCs and will combine classroom and online learning to impart critical skills in a knowledge based economy such as Microsoft Office, coding, starting a small business and more by online instructors and courses.
To date, six HP Tech Hubs have been established in Lombok and Jakarta in Indonesia along with Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The remaining HP Tech Hubs will be deployed in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines by the end of 2020.
“Unprecedented connectivity, new technological breakthroughs – and now COVID 19 – have re-defined how we live, work, and relate to one another. HP has a responsibility to play a role in preparing our youths for this new reality. To help them thrive in the new future of work, we need to build up their confidence, impart them the skills, and give them access to equal opportunities,” said Ng Tian Chong, Vice President; Managing Director, Greater Asia, HP Inc. “Through the HP Tech Hubs, we equip youths in underserved communities with technical and practical knowledge and aim to inspire them to widen their horizons, be creative, and take the bold step towards new possibilities.”
The HP Tech Hubs are a key aspect of HP Inc’s broader education initiatives in the Asia Pacific region which have empowered close to 1.3 million students and adult learners in 2019 alone. Among the other initiatives that HP has undertaken include their Little Makers Challenge which saw young children learning creatively together with over 90,000 hours of activities along covering critical subjects in the arts, geography, biology and astronomy.
Another key educational initiative by HP is a collaboration with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and National Research Foundation Singapore to democratise digital manufacturing. For more detail you can peruse HP’s official Sustainable Impact Report for 2019 here.