This blog series provides readers with insight on the valuable content that is being shared at the NASDCTEc Fall Meeting. Guest bloggers are partner organizations, supporters and other experts that will be present at the national gathering in the Baltimore, MD area October 21-23, 2013. Today’s guest blogger is Aaron Osmond, Vice President, North America Sales of Certiport (a Pearson/Vue Company), and Utah State Senator.

Certiport Helps Millions of Students Earn Industry-Recognized Certification in CTE Programs

Certiport, a Pearson VUE business, is the world leader in performance-based certification exams and practice test solutions for academic institutions, currently delivering nearly 2 million certification exams each year around the world.

There has never been a better time for Career Technical Education (CTE) programs to implement certification.  The global job market is increasingly competitive, and the U.S. government continues to push schools to improve their CTE programs to prepare students to enter the workforce.  The quality of CTE programs varies greatly across the U.S., but certification can be a universal equalizer.

By arming students with an industry-recognized certification, CTE programs can simultaneously boost student resumes while satisfying state assessment requirements.  In North Carolina, for instance, the Department of Public Instruction entered a statewide licensing agreement with Microsoft and Certiport to give their students, wherever they lived in North Carolina, the opportunity to earn valuable information technology credentials such as the Microsoft Office Specialist or Microsoft Technology Associate.

Now, more than 100,000 students and teachers have earned certifications in North Carolina and Aaron Fleming, Director of CTE for Lee County Public Schools, is proud of what the program has accomplished.  “The Microsoft IT Academy allows students to prove to employers they have a specific skill that is in-demand.  Certification is one way to close the skills gap – it’s one way for employers to find someone to fill exactly what they need in an open position.”

Certiport manages a sophisticated portfolio of leading certification programs including: the official Microsoft Office Specialist certification program, the Microsoft Technology Associate certification program, the Adobe^® Certified Associate certification program, the HP Accredited Technical Associate, the CompTIA Strata™ IT Fundamentals, the Autodesk Certified User certification program, the Intuit QuickBooks Certified User certification program and the Internet and Computing Core Certification (IC³^®).

To learn more about how Certiport can help your CTE program teach and validate in-demand workforce skills with industry-recognized certification, stop by the Certiport booth at the Fall Meeting or visit www.certiport.com.

The NASDCTEc Fall Meeting will be held October 21-23, 2013 at the BWI Airport Marriott Hotel in Linthicum, MD. More information

Ramona Schescke, Member Services Manager

Tags: credentials

This entry was posted on Friday, October 11th, 2013 at 6:49 am and is filed under Advance CTE Fall Meeting, Meetings and Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.