Microsoft Nigeria has urged teachers in Nigeria to empower their students with 21^st century teaching techniques that is information technology driven in an effort to make them problem solvers, innovators and inventors.

Speaking at the training organised for National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) members serving in Lagos state by STEM-Ed Africa in partnership with Microsoft Nigeria, the Citizenship Head, Microsoft Nigeria, Sola Amusan said the training seeks to enrich the knowledge of the corp members who teach on the 21st century system of teaching.

Jordan Belmonte, the Education Programs Manager, Microsoft Nigeria, said the technology firm was working to make learning easy for students using technology, saying,”We want to make sure that more technology savvy students graduated from Nigerian educational system.”

In addition, she stated that more than 50% of today’s jobs require some technology skills, that percentage she explained will increase to 77% in the next decade.

“Opportunities are in the information economies. Information Technology companies will shape the future. More than 50 per cent of today’s job requires technology skills.

“What Microsoft is doing is to prepare the students coming out of Nigerian schools for the possibilities out there, that’s why we are training the corp members, so that they can further impact the knowledge on their students,” She said.

She added that students learn best and retain the most when they are interested and engaged in what they are being taught, noting that effective communication should be integrated as part of classroom learning environment.

She implored corp members and teachers in Nigeria to leverage on Free Microsoft educational applications online to teach their students.

One of the trainers, Busola Majekodunmi called on the private sector to collaborate with government to develop Nigerian educational sector.

She urged unemployed youth to engage in voluntary work in order to gather experience and prepare themselves for the tasks ahead.