Microsoft Australia has launched its Students to Business (S2B) program to link students and graduate job seekers with local IT career opportunities.

Through the S2B program, universities and training providers can work together with local companies to provide students with internship and graduate employment opportunities.

The S2B portal will match qualified job candidates with open positions.

Local Microsoft partner Readify announced it will join the S2B program.

Readify CEO Graeme Strange said the company has focused on attracting and retaining the industry’s top talent and is excited about partnering with Microsoft on S2B as it gives greater access to graduate talent, but also the ability to “shape the careers of the IT industry’s future thought leaders”.

Microsoft Australia sees the program as also helping to alleviate the widely-reported skills shortage in the local ICT sector.

Microsoft’s developer evangelism manager, Roger Lawrence, said the S2B program is “the next chapter” in Microsoft Australia’s efforts to address the challenge of skills shortages.

“The S2B portal is a direct link between graduates and unique entry level and internship positions. Students have the opportunity to gain valuable work experience and businesses can tap into a fresh pool of up and comers,” Lawrence said.

The S2B program will allow students to upload their CVs to the S2B portal and profile their skills and experience, and Microsoft partners and customers can post jobs and internships.

Industry can then search published student resumes and profiles containing “Microsoft competencies and certifications” and view recommendations identified through propriety data matching capabilities and receive and manage applications.

The S2B site will focus on technical jobs first, but the program may be expanded to include sales and marketing roles in the ICT sector, according to Microsoft.

The S2B program was first piloted by Microsoft in Italy and has since been rolled out in 28 countries.