Hochiminh city to pilot IC3 & MOS in its secondary schools and high schools

Hochiminh City August 28^th 2014, HCMC Department of Education and Training together with IIG Vietnam held the Certificates awarding ceremony for teachers who completed the IC3 & MOS workshops and IC3 & MOS implementation plans in secondary schools and high schools in HCMC. At the ceremony, HCMC Department of Education and Training and IIG Vietnam awarded the IC3 workshop certificates to 96 IT teachers from 47 secondary schools and MOS workshop certificates to 107 IT teachers from 42 high schools in the city. This is an activity in a program to improve IT proficiency for teachers and students in HCMC, renovate IT teaching content in secondary schools and high schools, and access international programs, by HCMC Department of Education and Training and IIG Vietnam.

Mr. Pham Van Hung – Head of Secondary Education Division, HCMC Department of Education and Training – giving a speech at the ceremony

Ms. Vu Bich Ngoc – HCMC Branch Director, IIG Vietnam – giving a speech at the ceremony

For many years, HCMC has always been the pioneer city in applying modern IT applications as well as new evaluation criteria for education. Typically, on 20/6/2014, Chairman of HCMC People’s Committee issued Decision No. 3036 / QD-UBND to specify advanced schools, following the integration trend in HCMC. Accordingly, for colleges and intermediate level professional schools, 100% of non-specialist IT teachers need to achieve IC3 level or equivalent; all students need to have IC3 certificate upon graduation (previously, the Prime Minister promulgated the Decision No. 761/QĐ – TTg dated 23/5/2014 about approving the “Develop high quality vocational schools Scheme 2020”, to specify that 100% teachers and students in vocational schools need to achieve the IC3 level).

From the perspective of direct education management, HCMC Department of Education and Training also recognized the IC³ and MOS as the benchmark of students’ IT skills in the city. Recently, on 27/8/2014, HCMC Department of Education and Training issued the Document No. 2998/GDDT-VP and 2999/GDDT-VP, which include detailed guidance about IT standards for teachers and students in HCMC accordance to the international standard. According to that, IT teachers from primary schools, secondary schools, intermediate level professional schools and colleges need to achieve IC³ Authorized Educator, high school teachers need to achieve MOS Word, PowerPoint, MOS Excel, ACA Photoshop, ACA Flash certificates and other relevant certificates to teach Microsoft MCE and ACA; teachers in other subjects need to achieve the IC3 certificate and MOS PowerPoint certificate. For primary school students, it is required for them to take the IC³ Spark for grades 3 to 5. Secondary school students will take the IC³ for grades 6 to 8. High school students will take the MOS and ACA. For intermediate level professional schools and colleges, students need to achieve the international IC³ certificate upon graduation.

IC3 and MOS tests are becoming increasingly popular in many universities, colleges and vocational schools in the city as standardized tests to measure students’ IT proficiency, instead of other applied IT certificates (HCMC University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology, Ton Duc Thang University, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, HCMC University of Food Industry…). It could be indicated that the documents and activities of state management authorities and training units in HCMC show the city’s determination in the strategy to build high quality human resources to compete in the regional and international work force.

To prepare for the 2014 – 2015 school year plan, and to prepare to pilot the IC3 and MOS in the curriculums of secondary schools and high schools, in July and August 2014, HCMC Department of Education and Training together with IIG Vietnam held the IC3 and MOS teacher workshops for IT teachers from outstanding secondary schools and high schools in the city. The workshops were implemented by IIG Vietnam, with IC3 and MOS master trainers certified by IIG Vietnam and Certiport. These workshops equipped the attendees with knowledge and skills to teach IC3 and MOS, IC3 and MOS curriculums, levels of the tests, resources and practice to prepare for the tests.

Awarding IC³ certificates to the teachers who completed the workshop

At the award ceremony, the Secondary Education Division – HCMC Department of Education and Training – also informed and guided the school boards’ representatives and teachers how to implement the IC3 program for secondary schools and MOS program for high schools in the 2014 – 2015 school year. After that, the ceremony dedicated an amount of time for the Secondary Education Division and IIG Vietnam to answer the audiences’ questions about the content of the pilot implementation to come, as well as the questions about IC3 and MOS.

The success of the workshops, shown in the knowledge and skills of the teachers, will be an important base contributing to the success of the IC3 and MOS implementation plans in HCMC, which equip secondary and high school students in the city with essential IT skills to support their studies and future career plans.

IC3 (Internet and Computing Core Certification) and MOS (Microsoft Office Specialist) are two international IT tests presented by Certiport (USA) – a world leading organization in IT testing. IC3 is a global certification program designed to certify an individual’s digital literacy skills in basic computer and Internet use, while MOS is the world’s leading certification for expertise in Microsoft Office programs, including MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint… These are the world leading basic and office IT certificates, preferred by goverments and human resources management. In Vietnam, IC3 and MOS are becoming more and more popular and being provided by IIG Vietnam – Country representative of Certiport in Vietnam.