The Organizing Board for the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship (MOSWC) 2015, representing the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), IIG Vietnam, the Military Telecoms Group (Viettel) and Youth Newspaper, on June 16 held the awarding ceremony of the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship 2015 in Vietnam.
Six years after the competition’s debut in Vietnam, this is the first time the MOSWC awarding event is held in Hanoi, with two out of the three MOS 2015 Ambassadors coming from the capital city.
Mr. Doan Hong Nam, head of the MOSWC 2015 organizing board, said:“Through close collaboration between the four co-organizers, the MOS world championship this year saw a big boost both in terms of quantity and quality, and came with quite a few surprises.Unlike previous years, when the MOS Ambassador titles were like ‘owned’ by competitors from HCMC,this year for the first time has two out of the three champions coming from Hanoi.2015 is also the first year that has the involvement of 12 provincial Education and Training Departments, in addition to the traditional participation of universities, community colleges and vocational schools like the other years.
Interestingly, MOSWC 2015 is no longer a private playground for higher education students, but has been increasingly accessible to school students.School students attending MOSWC 2015 represent 54% of the total, compared to 38% of 2014, and those making the Country Finals accounted for 15% of all the examinees in this round.That is a major step ahead for this competition, because it shows a change in awareness on the importance of office computer skills for school students from all Education-Training Departments in the country.It is also evidence that the competition has been instrumental in improving the quality of computer science training, not just in tertiary level institutions, but also the schools”,added Nam.
Among the best spots in the Country Finals, contestants from the South continued to have a dominant proportion, at 74%, while the Central had 2% and the North filling in with 24%.Of the more than 1,500 participants from 260 elite select teams put together from hundreds of thousands of competitors nationwide, through the community level and national rounds, MOSWC 2015 finally picked its three Gold Prize winners for the three competition components of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.These brilliant winners will be representing the country in the World Finals in Dallas, Texas, USA, to be underway on August 9 – 12, 2015.
Ø MOS Word Ambassador - Trần Minh Tiến, student of HCMC Banking University. This is the second year in a row Tien holds the MOS Vietnam Ambassador role. Minh Tiến won the Bronze medal for Microsoft Excel 2010 in the MOSWC 2014 World Finals
Ø MOS Excel Ambassador – Phạm Trường Giang, student of Hanoi Foreign trade University.
Ø MOS PowerPoint Ambassador – Nguyễn Thị Hiền Gia, student of Hanoi Foreign trade University.
Speaking about the importance and social impact of the contest, Mr. Nguyen Vinh Hien, Vice Minister, MOET, chairman of the MOSWC 2015 Vietnam steering committee, said: “At a time of international economic integration, Vietnamese workers need to acquire the core competencies and knowledge needed to participate in a labor market that tends to span beyond a country’s borders. Accordingly, computer literacy and language competency are a must for students to be able to find work not just in Vietnam, but the ASEAN region, given the upcoming inception of the ASEAN economic community by the end of this year. Through this competition, I am very happy to know that a movement of computer skills training and upgrade has been formed among the college and school students, and is strongly growing, where MOS comes in as a good directional tool for the schools. Indeed, MOSWC 2015 has played a meaningful role in helping the schools to demonstrate how good their computer skill training has been, as a way to promote young talents in this phase of international integration”.
Mr. Moses Wan, Vice President, Certiport Group, representing the competition’s World organizing board, said: “I am really impressed with the co-organization of 4 big leaders including Ministry of Education and Training, Viettel, Tuoi Tre Newspaper and IIG Vietnam. Vietnam (together with Laos and Cambodia) is the only 3 countries in the world attract interests of sponsors and accompanying enterprises, which no other countries can do. We highly appreciate Viettel’s contribution on MOSWC 2015.
Co-operation between the leading governing body in education and other organizers in the contest show the interest and support of Vietnam Government in developing Vietnamese education in general and developing IT industry in particular. With such great investment, I strongly believe that Vietnam youth will become more and more talented not only in IT but also in other industries. “ added Wan.
Regarding awards, MOSWC 2015 Vietnam accords with the World Finals rules - a Gold medal, a Silver medal, a Bronze medal and 30 consolation prizes. This is also the first year all winners of the first, second and third prizes receive a certificate of commendation from the Minister of Education and Training, similar to National Elite Student competitions in Vietnam.
The MOSWC 2015 review and prize award event also honored provincial Education-Training Departments for their active involvement in the event, and the five schools with excellent performance this year.
Despite having been there with MOSWC for years, this is the first year that Viettel played the role of a hands-on co-organizer, addressing at the ceremony, Mr. Hoang Cong Vinh, Deputy Director General of Viettel said: “Being there with the students and investing in education is one of Viettel’s core missions, and education is also a field that Viettel finds itself responsible for, since the young generation is the future of the country and education is key to the nation’s development. Co-organizing the MOSWC 2015 world computer skill competition is exactly a tangible act that shows Viettel’s commitment in being there with the young generation.
Five years into its introduction, the world office computer skill competition has seen the number of participants in the national round increase by five folds. This is an interesting playground that inspires passion for information technology in the community. The government has plans to launch Vietnam as a strong nation in terms of telecoms and information technology. As the largest business in the industry, Viettel will continue providing opportunities for young people to get access to, practice, experience, love and connect themselves to telecoms and information technology, as a way to quickly roll out the government’s project. Moreover, co-organizing the MOSWC 2015 also reflects our wish of encouraging young Vietnamese to have the opportunity to go out there, compete with global information technology powerhouses, and realize their potentials”, Mr. Hoang Cong Vinh emphasized.
At the review and prize award event, Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan gave credit to the great contribution of MOSWC 2015 co-organizers, as well as commendations and encouragement to the three MOSWC 2015 Vietnam winners who are making their way to the world championship in USA.The Minister said:“The world finals is very important. Therefore, I suggest that the organizing board spends serious time for review and adopt the right approach in coaching the three MOSWC Ambassadors of this year, so that they have the best knowledge, skills and mentality to come into World Finals in USA come this August”.
The Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship – MOSWC is the world’s largest competition on Microsoft Office skills, spanning over 100 countries. In Vietnam, MOSWC has now become the biggest national scale world class computer proficiency competition. Over 14 years of worldwide existence and a 6-year presence in Vietnam, MOSWC has truly presented itself as a largest intellectual playground around the planet, and an opportunity for students to demonstrate and mark themselves in the international golden record.
T.N
Vietnamese
