CCI Learning Solutions is excited to announce the 2012 Canadian Competition on Microsoft Office! This annual competition is expected to draw a record number of entries from across the country. Each student who takes a Microsoft Office Specialist exam in either Word 2007/2010, Excel 2007/2010, or PowerPoint 2007/2010 will be entered into the Canadian National Competition. The students who have the highest scores in each respective category will be invited to compete as the Canadian Champion at the Worldwide Competition in Las Vegas, Nevada from July 30 - August 1, 2012. Students will compete for the title of "World Champion" and the chance to win up to $5,000.

Ray Kelly, CEO of Certiport talks about the competition and it's impact on students around the world:

"The Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office has been gaining incredible momentum over the years, and the student competitors are incredibly passionate about preparing for the exams and representing their countries. The competition has become a technology olympics as students demonstrate their tremendous skills and compete against the best of the best. Certification is a valuable tool for students – it helps them to be college and career ready. It also proves that they have desirable skills and gives them confidence in using these applications more fully than most other users in the world."

CCI Learning Solutions will be sponsoring students to represent Canada at the Worldwide Competition. Should you have any questions regarding the Canadian competition, please contact us at admin@officecompetition.ca.

Best of luck to all of the competitors!

National Champions to Represent Canada in the 2011 Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office

Langley, BC – July 12, 2011

CCI Learning Solutions Inc. announced today that two students from Alberta and one from British Columbia have won the Canadian National Competition in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. They have been invited to compete on behalf of Canada at the 2011 Microsoft Office Worldwide Competition held in San Diego, California from July 31^st to August 4^th.

The Microsoft Office Worldwide Competition, which is an annual event, is open to full time students across Canada that are currently enrolled in an educational institution that offers the Microsoft Office Specialist Certification Program, which is Microsoft’s official certification for Office applications. In this particular event, students are required to successfully complete Microsoft Office Specialist certification exams. These tests are online and performance-based and require students complete a number of challenging tasks in either Word, Excel or PowerPoint to demonstrate their exceptional competency in the world's foremost desktop computing applications.

Miranda Carter is a Hotel Management student at Canadian Tourism College in Surrey, British Columbia and is competing in the PowerPoint 2007 category. When asked about the MOS program at Canadian Tourism College, she says “It’s been amazing. I had some basic computer training before attending CTC, but the program they have set up and especially my instructor, Rob Donald, have been so great. I am really looking forward to attending the Worldwide Finals in San Diego!”

Mary Head and Chelsea Proctor are both students at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary, Alberta and have recently completed the Administrative Information Management (AIM) program. The program’s focus on Microsoft Office has paid off since both achieved near-perfect scores in less than half the allotted time for the exam. This is the second year that SAIT’s AIM program has offered the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification and Microsoft IT Academy programs. Janine Violini, an AIM Instructor, is very happy with the program’s success this year: “The MOS certification program and Office Competition have had a powerful impact on our program over the last two years.  The confidence level of our graduates has increased significantly, and they are proud of their skill level. Most importantly, our graduates are now setting new, higher industry standards for productivity and applied software skills in industry.” Mary will be competing in Excel 2010 and Chelsea in Word 2010. Both attended SAIT together and will be training with their instructors to be as prepared as possible to compete against students from around the world.

Malcolm Knox, President at CCI Learning Solutions is hoping it will be another gold for Canada this year. “Miranda, Chelsea and Mary have clearly demonstrated the skills necessary to be top competitors in the Worldwide Competition. CCI is excited to send such capable students to represent Canada on the MOS world stage – good luck to all of them!” At the Microsoft Office Worldwide Competition, national winners will compete to become the Microsoft Office Worldwide Champion for Word, Excel or PowerPoint by taking a Microsoft Office Specialist exam designed specifically for the competition finals. As part of the event, this year’s participants will experience various cultural and relationship building activities as well as attend an awards banquet celebrating the achievements of all contestants in the area of desktop proficiency.

ABOUT CCI
CCI Learning Solutions offers complete solutions for teaching and validating essential skills needed in today's workplace. As an industry leader, its extensive services and products include pre-assessment software, approved courseware for instructor led classes, e-learning courses and blended training solutions. In addition, CCI is a Microsoft Office Specialist, Internet Computing Core Certification (IC³), Adobe Certified Associate, iCritical Thinking and CompTIA Strata IT Fundamentals Authorized Exam Distributor. For more information, please visit www.ccilearning.com or follow CCI on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ccilearning

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Press Contact:
Alanna Clark
CCI Learning Solutions Inc.
1-800-668-1669
aclark@ccilearning.com