On the 18th of February, 2009 in the Belarusian State Informatics and Radio Electronics University a presentation of the global project which gives students free access to Microsoft professional software and which is called Microsoft DreamSpark took place.   

The High Tech Park and the International Student Travel Confederation – an international organization which is certified by UNESCO for issuance of ISICs, international students identity cards - became partners of the Project in the Republic of Belarus.

Eric Franke, General Manager Microsoft Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus:
"The employers in the IT sector often complain that graduating students do not have practical skills necessary for work. The DreamSpark Project grants students an opportunity to make use of Microsoft state-of-the-art professional-level developer and design tools starting this very day, and this experience will become a major advantage for newly-graduated specialists at the first stage of their professional career. The Microsoft initiative will help bring up a new generation of developers for the IT market of the Republic ".

The Microsoft DreamSpark Project allows ISICs holders to download up-to-date Microsoft  products for development and design of software at no charge. In compliance with the terms of the Project students will have free access to the development environment called Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition and a set of design tools called Expression Studio. These tools will allow students to implement their creative ideas, design their own web-sites and high-quality digital content including animation, imaging and photo. Besides access will also be granted to the database platform called SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition and the server platform called Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition.

Students will also have access to the set of tools called XNA Game Studio 2.0 which is designed for creation of videogames. Moreover everyone willing will be able to get a free annual subscription for membership in the XNA Creators Club. Software licenses will be granted exclusively in compliance with the terms of use and only for education purposes. 

More info about DreamSpark Project: http://www.dreamspark.com/

18.02.2009