Microsoft, partners launch IT training programs to increase basic computer skills in UK Microsoft and several partners launched on Monday two IT training programs in the U.K. in an effort to increase the employability of those who lack basic computer skills.Research shows that an increasing number of low-end jobs, such as customer service, require PC skills, said Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International. Employers are reluctant to hire those with lax skills, he said.“For a number of jobs, the penetration of PCs across businesses has increased significantly,” Courtois said. “What’s missing are the basic skills.” Both programs are aimed at those with disadvantaged backgrounds, Microsoft said.Microsoft and Cisco Systems are joining with learndirect scotland , a job-training organization, on an initiative called the Industry Alliance for Sustainable Jobs. The program will use a mix of self-study methods and community centers to help participants learn IT skills. It aims to train 100,000 people by 2010.A second program targets disadvantaged youths and involves Microsoft, State Street Corp., a financial services company; and Fairbridge , a U.K.-wide nongovernmental organization. Fairbridge will receive software and curriculum to run IT training programs throughout the U.K. The announcement was made in Edinburgh on the opening day of the Government Leaders Forum (GLF), an annual conference hosted by Microsoft that covers European IT and economic issues. Bill Gates, Microsoft’s founder and chief software architect, is scheduled for a keynote speech on Wednesday.IDC released a Microsoft-funded survey on Monday that found European companies expect prospective employees to have better IT skills. The survey, which covered 600 employers in 10 European countries, revealed that less than one-third of companies in the Czech Republic, France, and Portugal think their staff have adequate IT skills.“Ultimately, a large gap in ICT [information and communications technology] usage skills could have a negative impact on Europe’s competitiveness and ability to innovate,” the study said. Europe has been trying to beef up its IT education in the face of competition from the U.S. and Asia. In 2000, the European Commission launch the Lisbon Agenda, a wide-ranging plan to increase Europe’s IT skills.But European Commission President José Manuel Barroso criticized the plan’s progress at last year’s GLF in Lisbon, saying Europe was still not innovating enough.Europe’s decline in productivity is due in part to a lack of adoption of IT by small to medium-size businesses, which account for 75 million jobs within the European Union, according to a report released by the Commission’s ICT Task Force, formed last June. “Europe urgently needs to increase the employability skills and opportunities for millions of low-skilled people,” the report said. Technology Industry