06 July 2007 Hewlett-Packard boosts partnership with World ORT The worlds largest consumer IT company, Hewlett-Packard, has boosted its partnership with World ORT by funding five new business skills training centres for young adults in Russia. Four of the Graduate Entrepreneurship Training through IT (GET-IT) centres will be created in existing World ORT facilities, the fifth will be in a new site. And in a separate move, HP has donated a portable computer classroom to the ORT Samara Technology Centre, comprising 11 laptop computers, a printer-scanner, wireless internet access, digital camera and multimedia projector. World ORTs Representative in Russia, Belarus and Central Asia, Avi Ganon, hailed the latest collaboration with Hewlett-Packard as a new stage in the organisations relationship. Were very happy with this partnership and look forward to new projects with them, Mr Ganon said. For Hewlett-Packard, the latest developments are a sign of the confidence the multinational has in World ORTs ability to implement what is one of the key elements of its social investment strategy. In a letter to ORT Russia, HP Business Development Director Karel Vavruska wrote that ORT had been selected to implement the $200,000 project because of the organisations high level of professionalism a guarantee that it will work. System Administrator Elena Vorontsova with the equipment for HPs portable computer class at ORT Samara. The GET-IT centres, which are designed to improve IT-related business skills of school leavers and graduates, will be set up at Moscow ORT Technology Centre 14, the ORT Ekaterinburg Vocational Training Centre, and the ORT-KesherNet training centres for women in Tambov and Volgograd; the fifth will be a new site for ORT the Vocational Training Boarding School for deaf people in Tula. HP and World ORT have a long standing and productive relationship, including the setting up of Digital Community Centres in Slavutych (Ukraine), Tula, and Dikhatole (South Africa) as well as Microenterprise Acceleration Programme (MAP) centres in Ekaterinburg and Samara. The GET-IT programme builds on the MAP experience and focuses on the need to encourage job creation and entrepreneurship among people below the age of 25. GET-IT training courses deal with practical IT solutions for daily business challenges faced in areas such as finance, human resources, marketing, communication and technology management. The $200,000 directed to ORT Russia covers the cost of equipment, learning material and the training of trainers. Mr Ganon also praised HPs support for the Technology Centre at the ORT Samara School. The portable computer classroom will increase the level of technology teaching at the school not only because of the new equipment but also by providing a new educational programme for the students, he said. Gideon Meyer, a member of World ORTs Board of Directors, stressed the importance of working with high-tech companies. Collaborating with high-tech powerhouses like HP and Ness Technologies is an integral part of how World ORTs vision of enabling young people to participate productively in society can be put into practice now and in the future, Mr Meyer said. HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. With an annual income in excess of $80 billion, the companys offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. World ORT is the worlds largest Jewish education and vocational training non-government organisation and has benefited more than 3 million people Jewish and non-Jewish in 100 countries since its foundation in 1880.