Canadian Student Wins Silver in Microsoft Excel 2010
Calgary student ranks number one in North America in the Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office
San Diego, CA (Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office) – August 3rd, 2011
Certiport and CCI Learning Solutions today announced the 2011 World Champions in Microsoft Excel, culminating the most popular technology skills competition on Microsoft Office to date. The 2011 Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office attracted more than 228,000 unique candidates from 57 countries who competed to demonstrate their mastery of Microsoft Office products. Canada’s Mary Head of SAIT Polytechnic earned a silver medal, making her the second student in two years from SAIT to receive this honour.
"I am impressed by the caliber of students from all over the world who have learned advanced, certifiable Microsoft skills," said Takeshi Numoto, Corporate Vice President, Office Product Management Group, Microsoft Corp. "It was great to see so many students mastering Microsoft Office 2010. Office is used on more than one billion PCs worldwide, and these students who are deeply engaged in the product, which will help them realize increased productivity and efficiency as they use these desktop applications for school assignments and on the job."
Regional competitions on Microsoft Office were held around the globe and finalists from each were recognized at the Microsoft Office Student Awards Ceremony in San Diego. This year's contest marks the introduction of the 2010 Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Excel exams for the first time in the history of the competition.
"In its tenth year, the Microsoft Office Competition continues to grow in popularity – we had a 49 percent increase in the number of students who participated from all over the world in 2011 compared to 2010," said Ray Kelly, CEO, Certiport, the global administrator for the official Microsoft Office Specialist certification program. "We hold the competition to motivate and recognize students for mastering key technical skills that will help them excel in college and build their resume. I was very impressed by the winners, and holding the title of 'World Champion' will be a valuable asset as they continue in their professional lives."
“This is an amazing feat for Canada,” said Malcolm Knox, President, CCI Learning Solutions, the Canadian distributor for Certiport, “We are very proud to have taken home a medal two years in a row and congratulate Mary on her wonderful achievement. This competition showcased the best in the world and we were proud to sponsor Mary on her journey to victory! Employers, employees, parents and students need to take note: skills in Microsoft office make everyone competitive.”
In the concluding round, competitors participated in timed, unique tests to demonstrate their ability to create spreadsheets for the information presented in Microsoft Excel. This year, Certiport added a new component to the Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office. Each Excel 2010 contestant was required to take the standard MOS exam, and was also asked to recreate an existing Excel 2010 workbook from a provid\ed, printed example. Certiport recognized Mary Head at the Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office Student Awards Ceremony in San Diego, presenting her with a $1,000 scholarship.
"Over 3.5 million people worldwide have taken one or more Microsoft Office Specialist exams to receive an objective validation of their skills with a performance-based test," said Lutz Ziob, General Manager, Microsoft Learning. "We worked with business leaders to understand what they expect their future employees to know when we developed the MOS exams, giving us a very well defined learning and certification solution. The Worldwide Competition is indicative of the popularity of the MOS program, and it gives students a badge of honor that guarantees to employers that they know what it takes to be successful with Microsoft products."
About CCI Learning Solutions Inc.
CCI Learning Solutions Inc. is a North American based Information and Communications Technology (ICT) learning company. We are committed to ensuring that the digital skills of global citizens are realized through the use of the best of breed curriculum and global standard certification programs CCI focuses upon bringing the best learning and certification tools to people in the US and Canada. We empower training providers, academic, commercial, or government based to run official, global standard certification programs. More specifically, we work with our partners to embed the official Certified Courses in the Microsoft Office Specialist certification program, the Microsoft Technology Associate certification program, the Adobe® Certified Associate certification program, the CompTIA Strata™ IT Fundamentals, the Autodesk Certified User certification program, the Intuit QuickBooks Certified User certification program and the Internet and Computing Core Certification (IC³®).
CCI Learning Solutions is the only Microsoft Academy Service Partner covering the whole of North America. We support the Microsoft IT Academy Program with a collective experience of over 15 years advising and implementing Microsoft IT Academies across the globe. We are here if you require any help in setting up your Microsoft IT Academy in North America. www.ccilearning.com
About Certiport Inc.
Certiport is the leading provider of certification exam development, delivery and program management services which include practice tests via MeasureUp® delivered through an expansive network of over 10,000 Certiport Authorized Testing Centers worldwide. Certiport manages a sophisticated portfolio of leading certification programs including: the official Microsoft Office certification program, the Microsoft Technology Associate certification program, the Adobe® Certified Associate certification program, the CompTIA Strata™ IT Fundamentals, the Autodesk Certified User certification program, the Intuit QuickBooks Certified User certification program and the Internet and Computing Core Certification (IC³®). Certiport reliably delivers over two million tests each year throughout the secondary, post-secondary, workforce and corporate technology markets in more than 150 countries and 25 languages worldwide. For more information, please visit www.certiport.com or follow Certiport on Twitter at www.twitter.com/certiport.
"Certiport," "IC³" and "MeasureUp" are registered trademarks of Certiport, Inc. in the United States and other countries. "Microsoft" is either a registered trademark or trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Press Contact:
Malcolm Knox
1.800.668.1669 ext. 255