Microsoft invests in local programs that benefit people of all ages. In Denmark, our collaborations are organized by our focus areas of Building Digital Skills, Enabling Sustainability, and Empowering Communities. The following program list contains a sample of the kinds of investments Microsoft has made in Denmark.

Building digital skills

Microsoft believes everyone should have access to the skills, technology, and opportunity they need to succeed in a changing economy.  

ReDI School of Digital Integration is a non-profit tech school providing migrants and marginalized locals free and equitable access to digital education. It offers its learners high quality coding and basic computer courses in combination with a unique career and mentorship program, which includes the chance to collaborate with tech companies, startups, and digital industry leaders. Its aim is to provide its learners with valuable digital skills, a growth mindset, strengthened career skills, and a strong network of tech professionals to help create new opportunities for all.

• Cloud Computing, Data Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence programs consist of 12-week courses inspired by resources on Microsoft Learn, with career activities, one-to-one mentoring, company visits, workshops, internship and job matchmaking. Graduates earn certification within corresponding Microsoft Learning pathways.
• Digital literacy and mentorship for women with refugee backgrounds provides digital literacy training and one-to-one career guidance, including soft skill training, company visits, and the opportunity for mentorships, for refugee and migrant women based in the Greater Copenhagen area. Refugee and migrant women are underrepresented in Danish employment statistics, with less than 20% having a job after three years in Denmark (Danish Employer Confederation). Many of these women comprise ReDI School Copenhagen’s “digital beginners” group who have no or few digital skills, and very limited knowledge of and access to IT. In particular, this group needs support to check their bank account and administer their finances, communicate with the health system, communicate with their children’s teachers, and search and apply for jobs. Within this project, ReDI School engages local stakeholders as volunteers for the career activities.

Coding Pirates is a nonprofit organization that enhances the IT and creative skills of children and teenagers through engaging club activities. The organization harnesses the expertise of IT professionals, educators, and enthusiasts to foster a passion for technology and creativity among the young.

• Coding Pirates: Tech Space & Youth Communication provides weekly access for kids to explore and grow their tech abilities. The program also fosters youth-led communication about technology and STEAM in Danish, addressing the lack of communication tailored to kids and teens. Coding Pirates collaborated with Flimmer, a new child-safe media platform, to further support its goals. Editorial groups of teenagers were encouraged to develop compelling content for their peers, aiming to engage 1,000 new kids and teens through both existing and new channels. Support from Microsoft also enabled Coding Pirates to establish new clubs in Roskilde, Køge and Høje-Taastrup.

Borns Vilkaar fights to ensure that no child in Denmark is neglected and has since 1977 worked to improve children’s wellbeing. BV has developed programs to help support children navigate the digital life through workshops, a Child Hotline, and online communities.

• Safe Digital Communities works to ensure that children thrive in school in a digital age. Data and learnings from the BV Child Hotline confirm that the need to strengthen well-being is in high demand. BV has offered and held class workshops in the country’s schools that focus on digital bullying and well-being. Through dialogue and exercises, students are involved in developing concrete proposals for how children and young people can strengthen positive and safe digital communities, and how adults can be good helpers.

Videnscenter om Handicap identifies barriers to participation for people with disabilities and provides guidance on disabilities and effective interventions.

• The Inclusive Tech Lab in Høje Taastrup is part of Disability Tech Denmark, an initiative that brings together key stakeholders to develop digital solutions that improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. The Tech Lab’s purpose is to ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind in the digital age. It will offer a series of online workshops on how AI can support people with disabilities, disability organizations, and welfare professionals. In addition, webinars will show how to use accessibility features in Microsoft 365. Finally, the Tech Lab will serve as a platform for building a network of technological frontrunners from disability organizations, with at least three network meetings planned.

TechSoup Global builds a dynamic bridge that uses technology to enable connections and innovative solutions for a more equitable planet.

• Nonprofits Digital Transformation Journey builds upon the digital resilience of EMEA nonprofits through the delivery of information, guidance, digital skills training, IT services, and access to technology products and solutions through a partnership with Microsoft. The project raises awareness about the benefits of digital transformation and helps organizations move towards a consistent level across the six digital capability areas according to the TechSoup digital capability framework.

Enabling sustainability  

Climate change requires swift, collective action and technological innovation. We are committed to achieving our goals while helping communities do the same.  

Society for Ecological Restoration advances the science, practice, and policy of ecological restoration to sustain biodiversity, improve resilience in a changing climate, and re-establish an ecologically healthy relationship between nature and culture.

• Expansion of an old coppice forest project initiated the ecological restoration of a coppice forest in Boserup Skov, adding viable populations of at least eight different native tree and shrub species. Through the project, the forest is being expanded by 5.8 hectares to a total area of 10 hectares. Local sourcing of seeds and plants was prioritized. Unwanted tree species like sycamore, Norway spruce, sitka spruce, and beech will be controlled in both existing and new areas. Logging will also be conducted in the existing coppice forest following sustainable forest management practices.

Vild med Vilje is a movement for anyone who wants to make a tangible, local difference in making nature wilder, richer, and more diverse. It’s about creating change through knowledge-sharing and action. The goal is to bring wildness and nature into the places where people live, work, and play.

• Improving biodiversity in residential areas builds knowledge among citizens and motivates local action at the municipal level, while also working to increase natural areas and biodiversity. The project aims to create local ownership with biodiversity ambassadors. It engages municipal partners and operates at a very local, community-based scale through close cooperation with housing organizations.

Empowering communities

Microsoft is committed to strengthening communities and empowering the organizations that help them thrive. Whether affected by a recent emergency or decades of challenges, we use data, technology, and strategic investments to restore and support them for future generations.    

Boligselskabet Sjaelland is a housing association in Denmark that supports affordable social housing and provides community services for more than 12,500 homes.

• The Danish education with tech benefits project helps to create a stronger connection and unity in the residential areas, facilitate access to Danish lessons and IT, and increases the residents’ skills, networks, and opportunities for treading new paths. With the project, the participants acquire the necessary IT and Danish skills to contribute and participate as active citizens in society. The project increases the participants’ opportunities both socially and professionally in relation to the labor market.

Danish Association of the Blind works to ensure that people with visual impairments have equal opportunities as everyone else to participate as citizens in society.

• The Supporting digital skills for non-digital citizens project provides home visits from an IT teacher with in-depth knowledge of visual assistive technologies to visually impaired citizens who need help with various digital challenges. The project focuses on elder members with weak digital skills who have an urgent need for counseling in relatively simple but crucial settings and skills. The project enables them to handle far more digital tasks on their own.

ChangeX International helps to create thriving communities everywhere by democratizing change, ensuring proven innovations and finance are accessible to everyone, everywhere. ChangeX is a community engagement platform that, with Microsoft’s support, has funded more than 500 groups in communities across Europe and the United States since 2015.

• ChangeX Copenhagen Community Fund makes financing, resources, and support available to those who are interested in initiating a proven idea around community environment and community tech skills to strengthen their local community. It focuses on community or school gardens, revitalization projects, and STEM labs or workshops. Key goals are to launch new local projects in the region around environmental sustainability, digital skills, and community prosperity, contributing to more sustainable, livable, and inclusive communities.