Testing Center Success Stories
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Jeff Johnson
Associate Dean of Computer Training in Continuing Education
Certifications Offered
Microsoft Office Specialist Program |
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Certiport
Center
Bellevue Community College
Location
Belleview, Washington |
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"As an industry-recognized standard,
certification shows employers that a candidate is proficient in
using Microsoft applications. The clear result is a stronger bottom
line through dollars saved, dollars earned, or both." |
Microsoft Neighbor, Partner Leads Nationwide Technology Teacher-Training Initiatives
BACKGROUND
Bellevue Community College (BCC) in Bellevue, Washington is a leader
in information technology (IT) training. Since its creation of the
National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET) in the
1990s, the College has become a leader in training the next generation
of technology educators, supplying businesses with skilled workers,
and equipping returning workers to succeed in a rapidly changing workplace.
Located practically in the backyard of Microsoft Corporation, the College
has offered Microsoft Office Specialist training and certification
since 1998 and became a Certiport Center in 2000.
PROCESS
Duncan Burgess, Educator-to-Educator (E2E) Director at NWCET in Bellevue
is a team member of the Washington Center for Information Technology
(WCIT). One goal of WCIT is to improve IT instruction at Washington,
with an ultimate goal to encourage schools nationwide to follow suit.
(For information about the WCIT model, visit www.bcc.ctc.edu/wcit/home.asp.)
One
BCC project is the OSPI/E2E certification initiative with high school
teachers. Maureen Majury, Program Manager for the E2E Microsoft Office
Specialist program, reports, “Microsoft chose BCC’s E2E program
as a partner to provide early training on new Microsoft Office releases
to teachers in public schools nationwide. All our teachers who provide
peer training are certified—50 percent as Microsoft Office Masters.”
More
than 250 high school teachers have been trained and certified in one
or more MS Office applications, earning district and peer recognition,
respect from students, and a subsidy. Because of industry partnerships
with Certiport, Inc., and others, BCC offers training to educators at
a drastically reduced rate. Why? According to Majury, “Keeping
educators’ knowledge and skill levels in line with industry standards
is increasingly important in areas that demand workers with current IT
skills. More and more, these skills will be crucial to high school students’ success
after graduation.” She adds, “We are now launching a national
Microsoft Office Specialist program through the Microsoft IT Academy,
which will broaden the market saturation of certification training for
high school business teachers and other interested educators.” CERTIFICATION SOLUTION
According to Duncan Burgess, “In the first three years of offering
IT certification, BCC faculty conducted research to determine which IT
skills were needed most and then developed IT Skill Standards based on
the results. Using these standards, we offer training and certification
that are relevant to the community and in high demand among employers.”
Jeff
Johnson, Associate Dean of Computer Training in Continuing Education,
says, “We
focus on teaching skills that prepare students to perform proficiently
on the job and pass the certification exam to supply the business
demand for Microsoft Office Specialists.”
Employers such as Airborne
Express, Safeco, Boeing, Microsoft, and the City of Bellevue rely on
BCC to provide a growing pool of highly trained
and certified Microsoft Office Specialists whether they are recent graduates
or are sent and reimbursed by their employers. For example, the Eastside
Cities Consortium and the City of Redmond send employees to Bellevue
to learn Microsoft Office applications. Johnson says employers are “looking
for increased efficiency and productivity in using Microsoft Office,
and certification helps prove proficiency whether the candidate works
in a
support or a professional role.”
A key BCC resource for maintaining
business alliances are the IT professionals who serve as adjunct faculty. “Ninety
percent of the Microsoft Office Specialist instructors are practitioners—consultants
and professionals in the computer industry,” Johnson says. “Some
of them work full-time in training departments and come in and teach
here part-time,
simultaneously providing outreach into the business community.”
A
growing resource for employers looking for Microsoft Office Specialists
is the pool of returning workers. Suzanne Marks, Program Chair for Administrative
Office Systems, explains that Microsoft Office certification is one focus
area “because the workforce trend in the next 10 years will be
placing workers with computer skills.” What’s more, the Federal
government supports programs for retraining and placing workers and also
provides
workforce grants through programs such as Workfirst at BCC.
The College
also offers Microsoft Office Specialist training and certification in
credit-bearing courses, using texts that map to certification. In
the Business Software Professional program, the Microsoft Office Specialist
certification exam is accepted as the final exam. As Marks points out, “Students
who earn certification have a distinction like a driver’s license:
A learner’s permit claims that you can drive, but the license proves
it.” RESULT
Beth Bailey, Associate Director of Workfirst in the Workforce Development
Department, says, “Grant funding allows us to pay for Workfirst
students’ certification exams after they pass the practice tests
at 90 percent. Students get very excited about certification, because
most are low-income, single parents who are also receiving public assistance
and haven’t been in school for years.”
Bailey continues, “These
students have considerable barriers to getting into the workforce,
and Microsoft Office certification is a great way to
meet our goal of helping them move out of poverty into living-wage jobs.
Earning a certificate gives students something concrete to put on their
résumés and helps them stand out from other candidates, and
it gives them a huge self-esteem boost.”
Bailey relates the story of
one student who had been out of the workforce for nearly a decade, who
took the beginning Computer Software and Fundamentals
class and landed a secretarial job at a law firm in downtown Seattle
earning $18.00 per hour. “She wasn’t going to accept the offer
because she was enrolled in our advanced Computer Software Certification
class (Microsoft
Word and Excel),” Bailey says, “but the employer was extremely
excited about her being in the class. The firm works around her class
schedule, and supports her in getting certified. Because she was hired
partly on the
basis of being in the class, she will earn a raise after she passes certification.
The firm also plans to train her as a legal secretary.”
Associate Dean
Jeff Johnson concludes, “Microsoft Office Specialist
training is an important part of our responsiveness to the Bellevue business
community because it advances skills, creates new opportunities for employees,
and maps to certification. As an industry-recognized standard, certification
shows employers that a candidate is proficient in using Microsoft applications.
The clear result is a stronger bottom line through dollars saved, dollars
earned, or both.”
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