Microsoft Office Specialist: Helping Students Develop Workforce Skills

Will your students be ready for the workforce when they clear high school and college? An achievement they could place on their college portfolio and career resume? Will they have practical Office computing skills that will help them get started in their careers?

Now is your opportunity to enrich the substance and value of your course curriculum with Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) credentials. With certification, students get the opportunity to develop foundational expertise in cutting-edge computing skills as part of their chosen course of study, to help them knock down the academic obstacles and barriers that typically disenchant students and lead to increased drop-out rates. Regardless of the course topic, teachers can provide more to their students by personally achieving demonstrated skills in Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office Specialist certification features a simple framework for skill assessment and validation. And certification verifies a wide variety of computing skills; not only in programmes, but also for specific job functions such as managing budgets and presentations.

MOS certification is the leading IT certification in the world with more than 1 million MOS exams are taken every year in over 140 countries.

Provide Your Students with a Valuable Resource

For years now, the Computer Studies course, which helps students master skills in areas such as word processing, spreadsheets, desktop publishing, and presentation applications has been based on general principles and does not always teach industry leading technologies used in the business world. The course does not include a certification to help students validate to potential employers that they have the necessary skills to perform on the job.

Using MOS certification as a ready-made module for the school’s business and technology curricula offers students the opportunity to master real-world desktop computing skills that businesses require. With Microsoft and Certiport, the certification exam administrator, schools and colleges can replace an outdated curriculum and give their students a curriculum that would remain current with materials from Microsoft and certification exams.

The certification allows students to prove to employers they have a specific skill that is in demand. The MOS program is one way to close the skills gap – it’s one way for employers to find someone to fill exactly what they need in an open position.

Available certifications

With three certification levels (Microsoft Office Specialist, Microsoft Office Specialist Expert and Microsoft Office Specialist Master), the Microsoft Office Specialist credential allows individuals to validate their skills and progress toward their career goals in the following office applications:

• Word - Transform ideas into professional documents
• Excel® - Achieve valuable insights with powerful analysis tools
• PowerPoint - Turn your ideas into impactful presentations
• Access - Track and report important information with ease
• Outlook - Stay connected with up-to-date email and calendar tools
• SharePoint - Stay productive with the freedom to take shared content with you while on the go
• OneNote - Capture, store and share information in digital notebooks
• Office365 - Secure, anywhere access to email, calendars, Office Web Apps, instant messaging, conferencing, and file sharing

Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship

The Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship presented by Certiport, Inc. is a global competition that tests students' skills on Microsoft Office Word, Excel® and PowerPoint. Top students are invited to represent their respective countries at the World Championship. At the World Championship, each student competes for World Champion in his or her category (Microsoft Word 2007, Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft Excel® 2007, Microsoft Excel® 2010, Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, Microsoft PowerPoint 2007). The MOS World Championship is an inspiring event, motivating more students from all over the world to get certified and validate their technology skills.

To participate, students aged 13 to 22 must submit a passing score on the MOS Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Word 2010, Excel 2010, or PowerPoint 2010 exams and attend an approved, accredited learning institution.

Participants who outperform their peers to make the final round of the World Championship generally have perfect or near-perfect exam scores and completion times well below the allotted examination time. The top three winners in each category receive scholarship prizes for $5,000, $2,500 and $1,000 respectively.