Microsoft Offers Educational Institutions Free Access to Office 365 Pro Plus

Microsoft recently launched Student Advantage, a program intended to make Microsoft Office 365 Education more accessible to students globally, thus enabling their preparation for the workforce by giving them the necessary skills in the use of technology.

The Student Advantage program will, from December 1, grant free access to students of any school for the Office 365 Pro Plus if the staff and faculty members of that school registers the use of Office 365 Pro Plus or Office Professional Plus.

The Microsoft Office 365 Education, which is a cloud productivity service, is being used by about 110 million students, faculty and staff globally. Office 365 Education facilitates communication and collaboration among students in a virtual environment.

It is estimated that about 98 percent of students around the world use some form of Office productivity software. Anthony Salcito, vice-president of education for Microsoft Corp.’s Worldwide Public Sector organisation, said: “Students use Office every day for school work and activities that are most important to them.

“Office not only helps students stay organised and get their work done today but at the same time develops skills that will be required when they enter the work force.

“In fact, no other software or services show up in the top 20 most important skills identified in the research report.”

The research was conducted by scanning 14.6 million job postings from April to September 2013 supplied by Wanted Analytics, a provider of real-time business intelligence for the talent marketplace.