Microsoft tech-ed vouchers empower NJ’s unemployed

    A new partnership between the Garden State and the world’s largest software company will enable unemployed New Jersey residents to get some free technology training.

    A new partnership between the Garden State and the world’s largest software company will enable unemployed New Jersey residents to get some free technology training.

    Microsoft is providing more than 22,000 vouchers to the New Jersey Labor Department that will be distributed at the state’s One Stop Career Centers.

    Labor Commissioner Hal Wirths says those vouchers allow job seekers to get free access to any of the online training and certification programs that Microsoft offers.

    Wirths:

    Almost every job that is available in the state of New Jersey, I think, involves almost some level of computer skill from it; so I think it’s critical to have at least very basic computer skills in today’s world.

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    Wirths says the tech training can give people looking for a job a competitive advantage and help reduce New Jersey’s unemployment rate which is now at 9.8 percent.

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