Free PowerPoint Certifications Are Here at Community Business College!

Community Business College has been selected as an official Microsoft Office Specialist  beta testing center for the newly developed Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 certification exams.

The beta testing will be offered free to volunteers who would like to participate and will take place through May 30, 2016 (or until enough exams have been administered to provide complete results). The college is waiving the regular exam proctor fee for the duration of the beta testing period.

The college began working with the Microsoft testing administrator earlier in 2016 to assist in beta testing the suite of programs that make up Microsoft Office 2016. Beginning with Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, the Microsoft PowerPoint exam is now ready to be tested.

Officials at Community Business College report they will be starting the testing with current students and graduates but are also opening the testing opportunity to members of the public who would like a no-cost attempt at earning technical computing certifications.

These exam certificates are the official acknowledgement from Microsoft that holders possess certain levels of competence in the program and this information has been independently verified.

MOS Certification

The purpose of the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification is to allow people to earn a certificate in a specific Office Suite program. Microsoft states that one of the advantages of earning an MOS certification is that holding a MOS certification can earn an entry-level business employee as much as $16,000 more in annual salary than uncertified peers.

Community Business College was selected because of its expertise in the technologies required for implementing the exams and its extensive experience in beta testing technical certification exams.

To implement the beta testing program, Community Business College is providing free MOS Certification vouchers to volunteers who would like to assist in the beta testing of these fully online exams. In exchange for their evaluations of the exam system, participants who pass the exams will receive official certifications at no charge to them. The school is absorbing all costs for this high-technology project and will provide these services all at no cost to the participants. The vouchers will be distributed on a first-come-first-served basis up until the project is complete.

Exams are primarily performance-based and conducted in a "live," or simulated, environment. Exam candidates taking these certification exams are asked to perform a series of tasks to clearly demonstrate their skills. For example, a Word exam might ask a user to balance newspaper column lengths or to keep text together in columns. MOS 2016 presents the candidate with a project to build, with tasks and steps that build on each other.

Each beta exam takes about 2 hours to complete (although some test takers may finish quicker).

Why Community Business College?

Community Business College’s director, Dan Guerra, said, “Our goal in participating in this high technology project is to test the functionality of the updated exams and their new delivery engine environment. Modesto, with its new initiatives to kick start its technology sector, is a great place for this to happen. It’s also an excellent opportunity for people in the Central Valley to earn an official technology certification at no cost to them.”

People who do well on this exam, even if they don’t pass, might want to try their hands at the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championships.

The Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship is a global competition that tests students’ skills on Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Top students are invited to represent their respective countries at the World Championship. In some countries or regions, students are required to participate in a National Championship, and the winners of that event continue on to the World Championship.

Community Business College is also offering a complimentary study guide and informational outline on its website for those interested in learning more about the exam. Once the beta testing is complete, the live version of the exam will be continuously available at the institution.

People who would like to participate in the beta test can contact the school’s main office either by phone or e-mail through the webpage www.cbcwebcollege.com.

Veterans Day Job Fair at the Modesto EDD Office

Stanislaus County hosted a job fair for veterans this morning. Although the job fair had a particularly focus of helping our veterans, the fair was also open to the job-seeking public. 

It was an overcast morning after a rainy day and there weren’t the long lines of job seekers waiting to get in that there have been at past job fairs, but give them kudos for trying, especially for trying to help veterans - a much under-served population here in Stanislaus County.

The fair ran from 9 AM to 1 PM today. Given the list of exhibitors that showed up, it appears this fair ended up being more of a “resource fair” than a job fair, per se.

With regards to the exhibitors, there were many of the same ones who attended last year’s Veterans Day fair.

Below, Community Business College has listed some of the participants who attended the fair. If you weren’t able to make the event, you can still look up most of these exhibitors by their websites. (Google searches are an amazing advantage of modernity). Job opportunities are usually posted on the organizational websites. Other services can typically be found there as well.

2015 Veteran Fair Exhibitors

Employment Development Department Office, Modesto, CA

Staff Mark Employment Agency

California Employment Development Department

California Department of Vocational Rehabilitation

The Veteran’s Administration

California department of Business Oversight

Stanislaus County Alliance

California Department of Veterans Affairs (Cal-Vet)

The Stanislaus Small Business Administration

Delaware North Company (Yosemite National Park Concessions)

Heavy Equipment School

SMX Staffing Agency

Disabled American Veterans

San Joaquin Valley Veterans

American Legion

Stanislaus County Veterans Service Organization

Goodwill of San Joaquin County

The Veterans Day Job Fair Hall  11/10/15

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Or try taking a six-week, instructor-led resume class or job search techniques class at Community Business College.

And of course, there’s always our popular Use Linked In To Jumpstart Your Career certification class.
 

By the way, Community Business College will be closed tomorrow for the Veterans’ Day holiday.

Community Business College has been selected as a beta testing center for the international rollout of the new IC3 GS5 industry certification examination. The selection means the Modesto, California vocational college will be participating in the beta testing of the new IC3 GS5 exams and cloud-based testing environment. Officials at the school report they have started the testing with current students and graduates and are opening the testing to members of the public who would like a no-cost attempt at earning technical computing certifications.

  

What is IC3?

The IC3 abbreviation stands for "Internet and Computing Core Certification." The IC3 exam is a global certification, designed to certify an individual's digital literacy skills associated with fundamental computer and Internet use. IC3 is the first computer certification to be recognized by the National Skill Standards Board (NSSB). The newest edition of the IC3 certification track, known as IC3-GS5 (Global Standard 5), will be updated to include new technologies including Microsoft Windows 7 OS and the Microsoft Office suite of programs.

Community Business College was selected because of its expertise in the technologies required for implementing the exams and its extensive experience in beta testing technical certification exams.

To implement the program, Community Business College is providing free vouchers to those who want to assist in the beta testing of these fully online exams. In exchange for their evaluations of the exam system, participants will receive official certificates for each exam they pass. The school is absorbing all costs for this high-technology project and will provide these services all at no cost to the participants. The vouchers will be distributed on a first-come-first-served basis up until the project is complete.

Dan Guerra Community Business College’s director, said, “The overall goal of the project is to test the functionality of the updated exams and their new delivery engine environment. Modesto, with its new initiatives to kick start its technology sector, is a great place for this to happen.”

The IC3 GS5 beta exams are completely interactive and consist of approximately 115 questions. Exam takers are given 120 minutes to answer as many questions as possible.

The IC3 exams are divided into three categories:

            Key Applications

            Computing Fundamentals

            Living Online

The exams test users’ abilities to solve basic digital literacy problems, use basic productivity applications, and understand the structure of common technologies. In addition, the exam questions assess the ability to apply existing knowledge to deal with unfamiliar situations and scenarios.

Community Business College is also offering a study guide and informational outline on its website for those interested in learning more about the exam. Once the beta testing is complete, the live version of the exam will be continuously available at the institution.

One of the reasons the college is participating in the program to help to continue to bring high technology certifications to California's Central Valley.

People who would like to participate in the beta test can contact the school’s main office either by phone or e-mail.

What Community Business College Does 

Community Business College also offers online short courses

Community Business College has been training people in workforce development skills for over 17 years. The school offers job placement assistance to its unemployed graduates and enrichment classes for its working graduates to meet its goal of helping students practice lifelong learning. On-ground and distance-learning vocational classes include Computer Office Specialist; Legal Secretary; and Medical Billing And Coding.

Students attending the school are funded by veterans programs, the MyCAA military spouse scholarship program, and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) training funding.

The school’s other enrichment programs include advanced technology training, specific software classes, Business Spanish, English As A Second Language (ESL) and certifications.

Enrichment courses focus on common operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Android. Software classes are based on Office applications (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Office 365, Google Docs, and iWork) and standard computer productivity applications such as word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, multi-media, and file and data management.

The college also participates in programs which assist adult students in completing high school diplomas and obtaining their GEDs free of charge.

The college maintains an A+ rating with the Ne-Cal Better Business Bureau.

Job Fair Results - Slim Pickings

Community Business College staff attended a job fair this week.

Although there was a fairly good sized line of job seekers before the fair officially opened, this fair showed a distinct lack of job openings in the area.  The job fair claimed over 800 jobs but there were less than a dozen booths.

The depressed economy still depresses many.

There was, however, a ray of hope - college job placement staff along with other professional volunteers, provided free resume reviews and helped the job seekers prepare themselves and improve their chances for when the job openings do start coming in again. This is the same resume service that Community Business College offers its alumni to help them find employment.