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Bellevue Community College
Microsoft Neighbor, Partner, Leads Nationwide Technology Teacher-Training Initiatives

February 11, 2003

Partnering with Microsoft to train educators through national initiatives, Bellevue Community College extends its reach far beyond the local boundaries where its Microsoft Office Specialists contribute to business success.

Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, Washington is a leader in IT (information technology) training. Since its creation of NWCET (National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies) 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. The College has offered Microsoft Office Specialist training and certification since 1998 and became a Certiport Center in 2000.

Partnering with Microsoft to Train Educators
Duncan Burgess-E2E (Educator-to-Educator) Director of NWCET at Bellevue-is a team member of WCIT (Washington Center for Information Technology). One goal of WCIT is to improve IT instruction in 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 (Bellevue Community College) 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% 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 Ms. 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."

Supplying the Business Demand
The College is located practically in the backyard of Microsoft Corporation and serves a thriving business community with emphasis on IT. 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. According to Johnson, "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. Johnson reports, "Ninety percent (90%) of the Microsoft Office Specialist instructors are practitioners-consultants and professionals in the computer industry some of whom work full-time in training departments-who come in and teach 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.

Equipping Returning Workers to Succeed
Suzanne Marks, Program Chair for Administrative Office Systems, explains that "one focus area is Microsoft Office certification, because the workforce trend in the next 10 years will be placing workers with computer skills." The Federal government supports programs for retraining and placing workers and also provides workforce grants through programs such as Workfirst at BCC.

Beth Bailey, Associate Director of Workfirst in the Workforce Development Department, says, "One of our links with Workfirst students is certification, which we incorporate into a special class designed especially for them. Grant funding allows us to pay for the students' certification exams after they pass the practice tests at 90%. 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. 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 reports, "One student who had been out of the workforce for close to a decade took our 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), but the employer was extremely excited about her being in the class, 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 company also plans to train her as a legal secretary!"

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 Ms. 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."

Johnson asserts, "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."

Bellevue Community College extends its broad reach into the local and national communities by using Microsoft Office certification effectively to train its four primary populations: technology and other educators, skill-building employees, new and returning workers, and college-age students.

Read this article on the Certiport Website at http://www.certiport.com/forOrganizations/successStories/bellevue.asp.

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