The last several months have been a little crazy for me. I came back from a summer of helping my dad build my sisters house to find out my principal was retiring. We were also in the process of hiring several new teachers AND it was decided I needed to be the lead teacher. This was in addition to my being the CTE Administrator for the new CTE program we were starting. Did I mention I still had to teach?
The bright point in all of this? The Microsoft IT Academy program! This school year, the AZ legislature decided to spend some money on education by paying for the Microsoft program to be made available to several hundred school in Arizona. This program provided 50 free copies of Microsoft Office 2013 to the schools, access to the Microsoft learning site, and classroom materials (digital version) for teaching every MS Office product, including lesson plans, presentation, and training. We also have access to training material for the MTA program, we would just have to pay for the testing. The school also became a Certiport testing site so we could administer the exams in the classroom. Our school was one of the schools participating and I was in charge of implementation.
The program is amazing. It allows students to test and become Microsoft Office Specialist, all at no cost. I have done the research. One course in the private sector runs $1500-$3000. I had access to teach all of them to my students (and staff!) at no cost. Test? No cost? Failed? That's okay, they can retake it at no cost after a set period of time. And these are real certifications. The test are proctored and these are industry recognized certifications. I have even seen job postings requiring a Microsoft Word certification or Excel certification, not just stating "proficiency". This is something real that my students can put on their resume and that will help them to qualify for better jobs right out of high school. For my kiddos, that might actually allow them the opportunity to go to community college or trade school if they can get a job making better than minimum wage.
Many states across the US have provided the funding for schools to participate. Finding out if it is avalaible in your state is as easy as sending an email. The email address is your state mnemonic ita@microsoft.com. For example, Arizona is azita@microsoft.com. I would strongly encourage taking advantage of the Microsoft IT Academy if it is available in your state.
