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Microsoft Office Specialist – Identifying the
skill set
Most of us use Microsoft Office application on a daily basis with varying degree of expertise. But if we are asked to provide evidence of our expertise, we have nothing other than to
provide our work experience certificate from which someone has to infer this person has been using office application all these years. But how true could that be? Another angle to
be looked at is how many of us learnt office applications in a structured and proper way. Most of us took the simple but inefficient route, on job learning! From my experience with
interacting users of office applications, I can say for sure that many are not using it efficiently. This is where a certification in office application will provide us the window to use the
application properly as well as have a standard measurement of office expertise. Survey shows that Microsoft Office is the 3rd most requested skill for jobs worldwide.
So what are these certifications? Microsoft has come up with certification in MS Office applications called Microsoft Office Specialist. The certification testifies your expertise in Word,
Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, OneNote and SharePoint. Currently certifications are available for Office 2013 and 2016 platforms. Further to the specialist certifications in each of
the above subject, you can get certified as an Expert in Word and Excel with separate certification exams.
Getting certified as an expert in Word, Excel and PowerPoint along with one more specialist certifications in Access or Outlook could earn you the title of Microsoft Office Specialist
Master, the most coveted certification in Office packages.
Becoming a specialist is good,becoming an Expert is betterand becoming a master is best. So how can you become one? Those aspiring to get certified should pass one or more of the
following Microsoft exams.
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