Three students from Auckland’s Avondale College have won the opportunity to attend the 2016 Microsoft Office Specialist World Championships in Orlando, Florida.
The global competition will see students from more than 130 countries test their skills on a number of Microsoft Office programmes.
The group from Avondale College won places to attend the world championships after they topped the New Zealand national competition.
Paul McClean, Director of Avondale College’s Innovation Programme, says this is the third time the school has sent representatives to the competition.
"This is the third year in a row that all of the New Zealand competitors are from Avondale College," he says. "Two of the students are competing in the worlds for the second year running, and one student, for his third year running."
Last year’s world championships in Dallas saw students from Avondale College win top world places by solving problems using Microsoft Office applications.
"This is particularly impressive because the global competition is usually dominated by Universities and Tertiary Training Organisations who live and breathe the Microsoft courses," Paul says. “The students from Avondale however, have never sat the course."
Instead they are involved in the school’s Innovation Programme, which sees them gain industry recognised ICT qualifications while working on real world learning projects.
"The Microsoft competition is just something that happens along the way."