A twenty one year old Czech student competes from all over the world Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship he returned with a gold medal for the second time. Ondřej Cach visited the electronics competition, where students aged 13-21 years measure their skills in office equipment from Microsoft, for the last time, as he no longer meets the age limit in a year.
He has been involved in information technology and programming since he was 11 years old, while he previously shone in the Office Arena competition. Four thousand students from primary and secondary schools in the country take part in it every year. Only fifteen of them will participate in the national round. The best can take part in those world championships in the USA, where nearly a million students from 60 countries strive to advance.
Besides Cach, this year’s winner also qualified for the Czech Republic Office Arena Lucie Dorňáková and students from Smíchová Petr Novák and Vojtěch Werenyckyj secondary schools. To participate in the competition, everyone must pass the Microsoft Office Specialist certification exam.
Of the six categories, only Ondřej Cach took home a medal in the Microsoft Office Excel (Office 2016) category, although the qualification itself was a success. According to him, competition is fierce, and students from Vietnam have strengthened a lot this year. This is not the first time Cach has participated in the competition. In 2019, it came in second in the Microsoft PowerPoint (Office 2016) category, and last year it won gold in the Microsoft Word category (Microsoft 365 Apps and Office 2019).
He is only the second Czech to take first place in an international competition. In 2013, Jiří Houžvička took home the gold medal from America. Ondřej Cach, who is now studying Security and Information Technology at CTU, won $7,000 and a Surface Laptop. Since he enjoyed the Office Arena, he considered joining as a judge or mentor. He wants to deepen and share his knowledge.
MOS World Championship 2022
This year there was competition in three main categories: Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Each is divided into two product versions, namely tools from Office 2016 and from Microsoft 365 Apps and Office 2019. So, there are a total of six categories.
Contestants must develop two projects under time limit pressure. In one case, they should be as close to the task as possible, in the other, on the contrary, they can use their creativity.
“I enjoyed the more creative part of the project. I like that each student can show their skills, what they are good at, what they can do in the given program. This year’s theme is skills gaps. We are preparing this project for real clients, so the assigned tasks don’t seem far-fetched.” said Ondřej Cach about the competition.
Resource: Certificate / YouTube | Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship | Pers conference
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