Four Students Named "World Champions" in Microsoft Office Word and Excel from 115,000 Competitors

Certiport hosts contenders representing 21 countries in final round of Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office

PARK CITY, UT (Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office) – August 11, 2010

Certiport, the leading certification solution provider for the global workforce and academic markets, today announced this year's World Champions in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, culminating the most popular technology skills competition on Microsoft Office to date.

The 2010 Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office attracted more than 115,000 unique candidates from 54 countries who competed to prove their Microsoft Office expertise. Fifty one student finalists participated in the final round of competition.

The 2010 Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office winners include:

• Emily Daubert, Canada, Microsoft Office Word 2007
• Ting-Yi Lin, Taiwan, Microsoft Office Word 2003
• Mishio Sashihara, Japan, Microsoft Office Excel 2007
• Chiao-Chun Yang, Taiwan, Microsoft Office Excel 2003

"Clearly, these students have demonstrated the foresight and discipline to invest in acquiring the certified skills for Microsoft Office that enable them to enter the workforce prepared to succeed," said Takeshi Numoto, Corporate Vice President, Office Product Management Group, Microsoft. "To stand out amongst the ever increasing expectations for higher productivity in the workplace and in today’s always-on culture, it is essential that students master the technologies that businesses depend on, and this event gives students a platform to showcase their preparedness to become valuable assets in any organization."

"With more than 9 million beta downloads, the Office 2010 has seen the strongest launch momentum in Office’s history, I am looking forward to next year’s competition to see who has come up to speed and mastered the new Microsoft Office Specialist 2010 exams," Numoto added.

Regional competitions on Microsoft Office were held around the globe and finalists from each region received an all-expense paid trip to Utah for the Worldwide Competition. In the concluding round, Word competitors participated in timed, unique tests to demonstrate their ability to create, customize and organize documents for the information presented in Microsoft Word. Excel competitors were tested on their ability to create, analyze, and format data in Microsoft Excel.

Certiport recognized these top four student competitors at the Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office’s culminating awards brunch in Park City, presenting each with a $6,500 scholarship.

"The 2010 Microsoft Office Competition was a great success – the number of students who participated increased by well over 40% compared to last year, and the winners were amazing" said Ray Kelly, Chief Executive Officer, Certiport. "As the largest IT certification program in the world, the MOS certification builds resumes and teaches students desirable workforce skills. Massive amounts of students around the globe recognize the value of achieving an industry-recognized certification that demonstrates the valuable skills and expertise needed to get the most out of the Microsoft Office suite."

Next year, Certiport will host the 2011 Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office in San Diego, California, USA, where the title of "World Champion" will be awarded for the just-released Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) 2010 program, in addition to Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007.

Preview and download quality photos of this year's winners, along with images of the student awards ceremony at: www.flickr.com/photos/certiport.

About Certiport

Certiport, a Pearson VUE business, is the leading provider of certification exam development, delivery and program management services delivered through an expansive network of over 12,000 Certiport Authorized Testing Centers worldwide. Certiport manages a sophisticated portfolio of leading certification programs including: the official Microsoft Office Specialist certification program, the Microsoft Technology Associate certification program, the Microsoft Certified Educator program, the Adobe® Certified Associate certification program, the Adobe® Certified Expert program, the HP Accredited Technical Associate, the CompTIA Strata™ IT Fundamentals, the Autodesk Certified User certification program, the Intuit QuickBooks Certified User certification program, and the IC³ Digital Literacy certification. Certiport reliably delivers over three million tests each year throughout the secondary, post-secondary, workforce, and corporate technology markets in more than 148 countries and 27 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. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Press Contact:
Brenda Armstrong
1.801.602.0305
barmstrong@certiport.com