Microsoft has announced that students in Trinidad and Tobago are eligible for Office 365 ProPlus from their school using a new self-service sign-up process—at no charge, starting February 23rd 2015.
The new self-service sign-up is quick and easy for students, but still allows IT managers at schools the control, flexibility and security that Office is known for while reducing the amount of administrative work needed to provide these free services to all students.
The Office 365 ProPlus benefit is an update to last year’s Student Advantage programme, created by the technology giant to offer Microsoft Office 365 to more students worldwide and to address the very real needs of a fast-changing global economy.
In fact, a recent study released by the International Data Corporation, an American-based market research, analysis and advisory firm that specializes in information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology, highlighted the significance of using Microsoft Office stating a proficiency in Office is among the top 20 skills required for high-growth, high-salary occupations.
With the many benefits and numerous testimonials, it isn’t by chance that thousands of schools within the Latin American and Caribbean region have implemented Office 365. Beyond providing their staff, teachers and students with an easy-to-manage e-mail platform, Office 365 fosters collaboration, leads to innovation in teaching methods by promoting greater interaction between teachers and students, and it optimizes operations.
There are many examples of user satisfaction with Microsoft Office. The Mexico State National Technical Profession School (CONALEP) is one of them: “Office 365 is a platform that encourages innovation in education at our facility. It allows us to have continuous improvement in the instruction of our students, who now participate more, investigate more, are more creative and take a greater interest,” said Juan Luciano Galeto, a teacher at the educational centre.
While here in Trinidad and Tobago, the University of Trinidad and Tobago and the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine are already using Office 365 as their cloud computing solution.
Both of these eligible schools, including all other academic institutions which have adopted Office for faculty and staff, can now extend the benefit of using Office 365 ProPlus licenses at no additional cost to students.
Those eligible will be able to download Office 365 on up to five PCs or Macs, as well as on mobile devices such as Windows tablets and iPads, allowing them to perform their tasks virtually anytime and anywhere. In addition, they have 1TB of storage in the cloud on OneDrive and will of course have access to automatic updates of Office 365 so that they will always have the most recent versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access and Publisher.
Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector Education at Microsoft, believes that being present as a brand in the development of youth toward technological innovation is a priority: “For teachers, principals and students alike, the benefit of Office 365 ProPlus expands the potential of education. And perhaps the most important thing is that it offers solid foundations for developing the capabilities that twenty first century companies need, in order to open a path to a future full of opportunities for today’s youth.”
To obtain Office 365 ProPlus for all students and academic staff, just visit Office in Education and follow the instructions. Additional free tools for teachers and principals are here.
