HP Inc. has announced plans to open 20 Tech Hubs in underserved communities across Southeast Asia by the end of 2020. This was outlined in HP’s 2019 Sustainable Impact Report.
The programme provides technology and entrepreneurship training for students aged 13 and above, and aims to upskill 10,000 youth by year-end – a goal that maps to HP’s commitment to enabling better learning outcomes for 100 million people by 2025.
Outfitted with 15 to 20 new PCs as well as networking support from HP, the HP Tech Hubs blend classroom and online learning to deliver technical and soft skills essential for youths to thrive.
These include Microsoft Office, coding, business communications, having a success mindset, and how to start a small business – taught by instructors or accessible online. Courses in entrepreneurship are adapted from HP LIFE, a free HP Foundation program that offers modules on entrepreneurship, marketing and business development.
“To help them thrive in the new future of work, we need to build up their confidence, impart them the skills, and give them access to equal opportunities,” said Ng Tian Chong, Vice President & Managing Director, Greater Asia, HP Inc.
Six Tech Hubs have already been established in Lombok and Jakarta in Indonesia, as well as Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The remaining hubs are planned in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines by the end of the year.
The HP Tech Hubs are part of the company’s broader education initiatives in Asia-Pacific, which has benefited 1.3 million students and adult learners in 2019. One of the initiatives include the HP LIFE, where since its launch in 2016, it has enrolled over 214,000 users globally.
In Asia-Pacific, over 20,600 learners have accessed HP LIFE curriculum in 28 countries. The World on Wheels (WOW) programme has further rolled out 43 self-contained, internet-enabled, solar-powered mobile learning labs in rural India, providing access to technology and learning to an estimated 3.5 million people in more than 1,400 villages.
Other initiatives in the report include the Little Makers Challenge which is tailored for parents, teachers, and 5 to 12-year-old children to teach, play and learn creatively together through printed and online material, this initiative in Malaysia received over 18,600 submissions, representing an estimated 90,000 hours of activities covering subjects such as arts, geography, biology, and astronomy.
As part of their efforts to accelerate the shift to a more efficient, circular, low-carbon economy, HP is committing to the global goal of eliminating 75 per cent of single-use packaging by 2025. Three hundred million tonnes of plastic is produced each year worldwide, half of which is for single use and 91 percent is not recycled at all. Packaging is also experiencing an increase in demand as a result of Covid-19. Packaging comprises a significant portion of total waste produced and can affect the health of our planet and people.
HP joined Project STOP, which collaborates with companies, governments and communities in Southeast Asia to create effective waste management systems that reduce ocean-bound plastics in Indonesia.
In Muncar, East Java, Project STOP has set up Material Recovery Centers to collect, manage, and recycle plastic waste from more than 60,000 people and which have generated over 100 full-time jobs. The waste collection service will be rolled out to more than 450,000 people across 55 villages in Muncar, Pasuruan and Jembrana over the next three years.
It is also working on tackling the problem of e-waste with the Tidy Tech Kiwi programme in New Zealand. In 2019, the program successfully diverted over 8,000 kgs of e-waste from landfills and raised over US$11,000 for seven schools.
