Mario Diazleal Corporate Academic Manager Certifications Earned Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor - certified in Microsoft Word Expert, Excel Expert, PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook   Employer CETEC Location Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

In his own words: "With my certifications, everyone seemed to have an automatic interest in what I had to say."

Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor Earns Job Promotions and Creates Certification Opportunities for Students All Over Mexico
Mexican educator and Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor works to build Office Specialist certification into technical college curriculum

In an effort to expand his knowledge and document his own expertise with the Microsoft ® Office system of business productivity programs, Mario Diazleal, a teacher at Grupo CETEC in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, pursued Microsoft Office Specialist certification. Soon after certifying his Microsoft Office skills, Diazleal was promoted to run the Cuernavaca CETEC campus and later became the company’s Corporate Academic Manager. Now Diazleal makes sure CETEC’s curriculum includes Office Specialist certification and encourages students and faculty all over Mexico to earn this valuable credential.

BACKGROUND
CETEC is an educational institution headquartered in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico that is dedicated to providing competitive, dependable instruction in computing and English. Responsible for the academic quality of more than 200 teachers at 23 schools in 10 states in Mexico, Corporate Academic Manager Diazleal oversees the production of student textbooks, supervises teachers, and ensures both teachers and students maintain a high level of technical expertise.

Diazleal began working at CETEC eight years ago as a teacher. When CETEC’s Cuernavaca campus became a Certiport Center, CETEC offered teachers the opportunity to take Office Specialist exams for free. “Although I have a system engineering degree from a university, I never had the time to work with software as much,” Diazleal said. “Other teachers worked a lot with Microsoft Office programs and knew more than me; I knew the network but not these programs. I knew getting certified was a perfect way to prove I can handle hardware and networks as well as software programs.”

PROCESS
CETEC opened its first Certiport Center with a ceremony and an invitation to its teachers to earn Office Specialist certifications. Diazleal was self-motivated to pursue this valuable credential. “Office Specialist certification is just what I needed to prove my skills and improve myself,” he said.

Diazleal used Microsoft Office Specialist Approved Courseware by Microsoft Press to begin his training. “In my free time I would study the book and practice doing the exercises using the programs and their Help functions,” he said. “I felt the tests were exciting and highly demanding. The time for completing the test was really tight.”

CERTIFICATION
After earning a ll of the Specialist and Expert-level certifications available for the first Spanish version of Office Specialist, Diazleal was a certified Microsoft Office Specialist Master. “I was the only teacher to do so,” he said.

Next , he pursued the Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor credential. This certification is for individuals who are or aspire to be Microsoft Office teachers or trainers. Recognized for their skills and hands-on abilities to use Microsoft Office programs, Master Instructors are required to earn Expert-level certifications in Microsoft Word and Excel, in addition to Specialist-level certifications in PowerPoint ® , Access, and Outlook ® . What’s more, Master Instructors satisfy an instructional experience requirement, which includes having a teaching or training degree or certified experience in providing Mi crosoft Office desktop program or other software training. “I have my Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor certification because of my teaching experience,” Diazleal said. “When I was teaching, my students were happy knowing their teacher was an expert. I have a physical certificate that proves my knowledge. You can see it.”

Diazleal is now awaiting the Spanish release of the next version of Office Specialist exams and plans to upgrade his certifications as soon as they are available.

RESULT
“With my certifications, everyone seemed to have an automatic interest in what I had to say,” Diazleal said. His accomplishments soon attracted the attention of CETEC’s administration office, and he was promoted to be the Academic Service Coordinator at the Cuernavaca campus. Later he was offered a position in CETEC’s main administration office as the school’s Corporate Academic Manager. “ Now I’m in charge of everything related to the academic area in the company. I lead the design and planning of all the courses we offer; structure the contents, evaluation, and certification of more than 200 instructors; manage academic coordinators on every campus; manage our e-learning platform; and research and design new and innovative courses and technology.”

In his role as Corporate Academic Manager, Diazleal has championed the Office Specialist program throughout the CETEC school system. “All of the CETEC schools are now Certiport Centers,” he reported. “And one of the most important concerns was to get an Office Specialist certified teacher in all of the schools. We now have at least two or three in every center.” Diazleal said achieving these goals has improved CETEC’s image, enhanced the quality of its teaching, and provided students with confidence that they can achieve technology expertise, too.

“Certification provides a perfect opportunity to do something bigger,” Diazleal said. “In Latin America, we have a different culture. Not everyone knows who Bill Gates is, but they do know of Microsoft. They realize Microsoft Office is installed everywhere—on probably 80 to 90 percent of the country’s computers. So if Microsoft makes an evaluation to prove your Office skills, who else can produce the criteria to say you have the knowledge necessary to be an expert or master? This certification is supported by Microsoft; people here are convinced it is worthwhile.”

CETEC students receive technical training in Microsoft Office. These skills, combined with English lessons, result in a two-year degree that qualifies them for technical careers. “The structure exists here to help students with their training,” Diazleal said. “We offer them the opportunity to earn certifications and give them the confidence to try by posting Office Specialist certificates on the walls to show other students are accomplishing it.”

Diazleal said the Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office presented by Certiport, an annual global competition that tests student skills on Microsoft Word and Excel , has provided CETEC students a great incentive to earn certifications in Microsoft Word and Excel. “You can travel to another place in the world to go up against the best,” he said. “This is a big opportunity to be noted.”

When he’s not encouraging CETEC students and teachers to earn Office Specialist certifications, Diazleal is putting his own expertise to good use. He has received career promotions because of his credentials and has found certification boosts his reputation and increases his ability to do his job effectively. “In my work every day I use Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook for reports, tables, graphs, and communication,” he said. “My boss, the person in charge of CETEC, knows that out of all of his managers, I have the best skills with these programs. He comes to me for help and knows I will know the answers every time. I really feel a lot more productive. Because I am more productive with these tools, I have more time to be creative and innovative in doing my job.”