Our Innovation Programme (TPI) students have been quietly stacking up some solid IT qualifications alongside their NCEA credits this year. And we're not just talking about basic qualifications - instead, these are industry-standard certifications that are usually gained by adults in the workforce or at tertiary level!
As a certified qualification provider working alongside NZIQ, Avondale College is able to offer students the unique opportunity to earn certifications in a range of applications such as Microsoft and Adobe, while still at secondary school.
So far this year, 241 students have gained their IC3 Digital Literacy Certification.
One hundred and thirty four Microsoft Office Specialist qualifications have been awarded to Avcol students, with 24 students earning their Microsoft Office Specialist Associate qualification (only possible after achieving the Associate certifications in Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel and Word).
Two students have gained certification in Entrepreneurship and Small Business.
Thirty one Microsoft Technology Associate qualifications have been gained, and we have eleven Adobe Certified Associates!
This adds up to a grand total of 419 certifications gained this year alone!
Three Year 10 students deserve a special mention: Mia Horvath, Basit Daif and Vedansh Patel have already completed 80% of their Year 10TPI programme and have acquired an impressive range of qualifications in Microsoft and Adobe applications.
Avondale's Head of ICT, Mr Vijay Prasad says there are number of other Year 10 TPI students who are also following close behind these three.
"We as teachers are extremely pleased with this type of high level achievement!" says Mr Prasad.
"We will have about 20 more students completing the entire Year 10TPI course by the end of this term - and they will then begin working on more advance Microsoft Technology Associate certifications and some industry based projects."
"In the next half year we are expecting to double the volume of higher end industry certifications."
Congratulations to all who have achieved these qualifications so far - we look forward to updating these totals in the months ahead!
