Avondale College students excel at Microsoft World Champs

<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">West Auckland&&num;8217&semi;s Avondale College has again demonstrated its prowess for digital technology with four top ten placements in the recent Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship in California&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The annual competition attracts hundreds of thousands of entrants&comma; ages 13 to 22&comma; from 122 countries&comma; each tested on their ability to create documents&comma; spreadsheets and presentations in either Microsoft Word&comma; Excel or PowerPoint&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Of the 200 finalists from 50 countries&comma; seven were from New Zealand &&num;8211&semi; all either current or ex-students of Avondale College&period; Ex-student Jayden Cook took the bronze medal for Exel 2016&comma;  year 12 student Shrey Tailor came fifth in Excel 2013&comma; Sebastian Thomas &lpar;year 11&rpar; was eighth in PowerPoint 2013&comma; and Ed Allison &lpar;year ten&rpar; was eighth in PowerPoint 2016&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The college has now achieved 12 top ten placements&comma; including three medals&comma; since it first began competing in the world championship four years ago&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Avondale College principal&comma; Brent Lewis&comma; says he is very proud of the competing students&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;They are setting a new benchmark for excellence for all young New Zealanders&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">At Certiport&comma; competition organisers&comma; Aaron Osmond says the competing students gain valuable workforce skills to benefit them throughout their academic and career pursuits&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The best part is watching the champions go home and then reporting back to us with all of the amazing things they are doing academically and in the workforce&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;