18 July 2008 Hewlett-Packard’s collaboration with World ORT set to grow Expectations are high for a further expansion of the highly productive partnership between the world’s largest consumer IT company, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and World ORT. The Vice-President of HPs Corporate Marketing and Global Citizenship in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Gaby Zedlmayer, was impressed by World ORTs implementation of the GET-IT (Graduate Entrepreneurship Training through IT) programme at the Moscow ORT Technology College. The College is one of five GET-IT centres which World ORT administers in Russia to encourage job creation and entrepreneurship among people aged under 25. GET-IT training courses deal with practical IT solutions for daily business challenges faced in areas such as finance, human resources, marketing, communications and technology management. During her tour of the Colleges GET-IT programme, Mrs Zedlmayer noted: The business plans made by GET-IT graduates are of a good standard; professional, realistic and practical, they are ready to use in a real small business. And her colleague, Irina Efremova, who is the Manager of Corporate Marketing in Russia, was so enthused that she offered to give lectures in marketing to students at the College. Dr Sergey Gorinskiy, Deputy Director of the World ORT Representative Office for the CIS and Baltic States, confirmed that Mrs Zedlmayer was very happy with HPs working relationship with World ORT. It was a very positive meeting, Dr Gorinskiy said. I think the collaboration between World ORT and HP will expand after this and not only in Russia. World ORT runs half of the 10 GET-IT centres which HP has initiated in Russia over the past year. In addition to the Moscow ORT Technology College, World ORTs courses run at the ORT-KesherNet training centres for women in Tambov and Volgograd, the Lawson ORT-Career Centre in Yekaterinburg, and the Vocational Training Boarding School for deaf people in Tula. These already represent a growth on the existing relationship between World ORT and HP, which has seen the setting up of Digital Community Centres in Slavutych (Ukraine), Tula (Russia) and Dikhatole (South Africa), as well as the Micro-enterprise Acceleration Programme (MAP) centre in Samara (Russia). More than 30 young people graduated this year from the GET-IT programme at Moscow and the course has been introduced into the curriculum of the Colleges Faculty of Economics. The number of graduates is due to increase significantly with the courses introduction as an optional component of the Colleges Restaurant Business course next academic year. Yuri Mironenko, Director of the Moscow ORT Technology College, said: Many of this years graduates would be capable of starting up their own businesses straight away. We are looking forward to extending these skills to those catering students who are interested in building their own enterprise after finishing College. Dr Gorinskiy said that the GET-IT course was invaluable to Russian students. Russia is a good country for big business but not so good for small businesses, he said. But at the Technology College, students are ready to work in small business they can see the potential in it. We are giving them the skills to make it happen. He added that the very fact that HP had asked World ORT to provide an example of HPs social contributions in Russia showed that ORT is a strategic partner for HP. The trust that has developed between the two organisations means that World ORT is well placed to use its grass roots knowledge of where need is greatest to help HP target its philanthropic endeavours to best effect. Another advantage of the GET-IT programme is that, because World ORT implements it through its non-sectarian International Cooperation Department for the benefit of non-Jewish citizens, it helps to raise the reputation of the Jewish community among the wider population.