Students take MOS test on Sunday. — Photo courtesy of HCM Communist Youth Union

HÀ NỘI — About 120 students competed in the national finale of the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) World Championship – Viettel 2019 on Sunday to select the most outstanding competitors to represent Việt Nam in the world final round.

The students who have been selected among more than 1,000 candidates from 40 localities nationwide took the MOS tests to assess their skills in Microsoft Office including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.

According to the organising committee, half of the national finale’s competitors this year are university students. The rest are from secondary and high schools. The youngest one is an eighth grader.

This year’s national competition witnessed a record number of competitors who scored maximum points (82 out of 120 students) since the championship was launched in Việt Nam in 2010. This result has shown computer and information technology skills of Vietnamese students have improved.

There will be three first prizes, six second prizes, nine third prizes and other extra ones with total values of up to VNĐ1 billion (US$42,500).

All national final round candidates will receive MOS international certificates which serve as one of the recruitment criteria at major groups.

The competition this year has been organised by HCM Communist Youth Union, IIG Vietnam, an organisation for testing and educational quality accreditation with the sponsorship of Viettel Group.

The national award ceremony is scheduled to take place in mid-May.

The best national champions will have a chance to win US$7,000 for the first prize and $3,500 and $1,500 for the second and third prizes, respectively, at the world championships to take place in New York.

Đoàn Hồng Nam, chairman of IIG Vietnam and co-head of the national finale organising committee said the competition has encouraged computer science learning at school nationwide. The percentage of Vietnamese students who pass national qualifying round in recent years has stood at more than 80 per cent, higher than the average global rate (60 per cent).

In the past seven years, Việt Nam’s teams have always featured in the world competition’s top ten with one gold medal, one silver medal and eight bronze medals.

The MOS World Championship presented by Certiport is a global competition that tests the skills of students aged 13 to 22 in Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint. — VNS