Microsoft's #WeSpeakCode campaign aims to inspire young Thais realise their potential in the digital

By the end of the year, the campaign aims to inspire 20,000 Thai youths to try coding and realise their potential as creators in the digital world of today.

The campaign is part of the Microsoft “YouthSpark” programme, a global, company-wide initiative to empower young people to do more and achieve more in their lives – by providing access to technology skills and a better education, inspiring youth to imagine and realise a better future, and helping them find jobs or to start their own businesses.

Last year, Microsoft Asia-Pacific launched the successful “YouthSpark#WeSpeakCode” campaign that saw thousands of enthusiastic young people across the region, including in Thailand, getting their first taste of learning basic coding skills, while many others took up more advanced challenges through hackathons and coding for social good. 

This year, the campaign encompasses a series of coding activities including the “#WeSpeakCode ThunderClap” initiative, the “#WeSpeakCode Social Media Contest” and Thailand’s major coding event on March 21.

Haresh Khoobchandani, managing director of Microsoft (Thailand), said: “Not only does having basic coding skills expand employment options, it also presents entrepreneurial opportunities for many. With knowledge and understanding of coding, there are endless innovative business ideas that could be turned into reality.

“At Microsoft, we believe that digital literacy, like coding, is an essential skillset in the 21st century and should be taught in all schools to drive innovation and real impact for Thailand. For example, a group of student participants who received advanced IT training from Microsoft launched a smart-phone application that uses augmented reality to provide information about accessibility and wheelchair facilities in Bangkok and surrounding areas.

“This demonstrates how technology can help enable innovation and bring great ideas to life.” 

Srisak Thaiarry, executive director of the National Council for Child and Youth Development, said: “We are delighted to be entering the third year of our partnership with Microsoft Thailand to empower Thai youth and this speaks volumes of what we seek to mutually achieve in the area of youth development here in Thailand.

“By promoting and teaching coding among the youth, we are also nurturing their critical thinking and logical problem-solving skills, as well as encouraging creativity and innovation. These are skillsets that are fundamental regardless of sectors or industries.”

Klaikong Vaidhayakarn, deputy director of Change Fusion, said: “The mission of Change Fusion is to grow social entrepreneurs, and coding skills will help young social entrepreneurs understand how to use and work with technology to add value to their products and services in the Internet era.

“This is the first year we are partnering Microsoft and we believe that the collaboration between a world-leading technology enterprise and social enterprises will encourage creativity among young social entrepreneurs to generate more social impact for Thailand.”

To rally support for #WeSpeakCode in Thailand and Asia-Pacific, Microsoft is calling on all Thais to participate in the “#WeSpeakCodeThunderClap” (https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/21629-wespeakcode-in-asia-pacific?locale=en https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/21629-wespeakcode-in-asia-pacific?locale=en) initiative with just a simple click of a button.

Leveraging social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, the initiative aims to spread the “#WeSpeakCode” message and actively engage supporters across Asia-Pacific. Similarly, to encourage Thais to discover the excitement, fun and ease of learning to code, this year’s “#WeSpeakCode” campaign challenges participants to submit creative, funny or interesting photos of their coding activities with friends or families via Instagram or Facebook.

The “#WeSpeakCode Social Media Contest” is now open to all Thais and ends on March 31.

Results will be announced on April 15 via the contest site (http://www.wespeakcode.net/contestdetails-th.aspx http://www.wespeakcode.net/contestdetails-th.aspx) and/or the Microsoft Asia-Pacific Citizenship Blog (http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/) http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_citizenship_asia_pacific/).

The “#WeSpeakCode” campaign will culminate in the “#WeSpeakCode Thailand Coding Event” on March 21, where more than 150 Thai youths will participate to learn and do coding.