Oracle is doing its part in helping improve society through education with its corporate citizenship programmes.
STARTING from a team of three people in a building without its now prominent red and white logo, enterprise software giant Oracle Corp can tell the corporate world a thing or two about being overlooked.
Now that it’s turned 30, the company intends to give back to the often overlooked members of society through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes or, as the company terms it, corporate citizenship exercises.
“About US$20mil (RM70mil) in resources has been put aside to drive these programmes,” Clare Dolan, vice-president of Oracle Education Foundation said.
According Dolan, Oracle’s corporate citizenship exercises aims to achieve three goals. “We aim to achieve a community that is ready to do business and equip today’s students for life in the 21st century. All these work towards narrowing the digital divide,” she said.
Education tops the list of Oracle’s corporate citizenship priorities.
This, Dolan said, is important to ensure a talented workforce is produced that will continue to drive innovation while alleviating the digital divide that is still affecting many around the globe.
Its education programme has reached 682,000 students in 83 countries including Malaysia, the Philippines, Africa, Brazil and Chile.
Currently, Oracle runs three education programmes. The first one, Oracle Academy provides IT training for secondary and tertiary education level students so that they may graduate with marketable skills.
The other two programmes, called Think.Com and ThinkQuest, instil teamwork among students around the world.
Think.com is a web-based learning community for primary and secondary schools.
ThinkQuest, on the other hand, is a learning competition where youths around the world work together to come up with a website on a subject that is of global interest.
Quest winner
In the recent Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco, Dolan demonstrated how ThinkQuest participants, meant for those aged between nine and 19, were able to better understand digital divide issues by working with each other through the Internet.
Ammu Irivinti, a student at Johns Hopkins University who participated in a ThinkQuest competition, eloquently commented on the digital divide or what she calls the e-Divide.
“The e-Divide is not just about not having enough computers,” she said.
She and her group of friends from England, the Netherlands, Australia, India and Egypt came up with a website that aimed to educate the world about the digital divide.
Tasks like translation and creating flash graphics were divided equally among the group members.
The group, which won the competition, experienced first hand the complications of the digital divide as one of the team members, Jasmeen Ansee from India, did not have access to a computer and the Internet.
She had to go to a relative’s house, which is an hour away or find a cybercafe to upload her work.
Developing skill sets
Competitions like these, Dolan said, can help youths develop 21st century skills such as teamwork, communication and technical as well as critical thinking.
“These are the same skills adults use in the workplace and these skills are required in a global economy as we work together with people across international borders,” Dolan explained.
Besides education, Oracle employees also do volunteer work. To date, Dolan said, Oracle has supported 1,600 non-profit organisations in 37 countries.
“Many employees do their bit each year and it’s purely based on personal choice,” she said.
Besides the usual spreading of technological know-how to underserved communities, Oracle’s volunteer efforts include building houses for the homeless, sponsoring food drives for low income families and beautifying cities and parks.
“This all goes into becoming a good corporate citizen,” Dolan said.
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