NSU holds technical skill focused competition

Excelsior 2018, co-sponsored by Shimanto Bank, is an esteemed intra-university 'Microsoft Excel' based competition organised by North South University (NSU) Finance Club, a co-curricular club under the Department of Accounting and Finance. Highly encouraged from its successful endeavours in recent years, Excelsior 2018 had two professional challenge rounds and two informative workshop sessions for the undergraduate students of North South University.

This year's Excelsior was inaugurated on March 31 by the successful hosting of the first proper skill development workshop for about 200 registered participants. Using the simple interface of MS Excel, participants started off by understanding the software and performing its basic essential activities. Further into the workshop, more emphasis was given to the advanced functions of MS Excel. Professionals from the strategic partners of the event- LightCastle Centre for Advanced Learning (LCAL), including Silvia Rozario, Rafayet Khan, Kazuki Kunimoto and Sumaiya Siddiqua conducted the workshop so that students could excel their concepts and basics in MS Excel.

Confident from the three-hour workshop and practices, competitors took part in the first round case challenge held on April 01. A challenging online case based solely on Microsoft Excel was sent out to the participants via email and was to be completed within a span of five hours. Out of the 200 participants, only 45 qualified to the final round after immense hard work and display of technical skills. Before competing in the finals, a second four-hour skill development workshop took place on April 06. It was made sure that the final competitors have a clear stance of the knowledge and skills required for the complicated and complex components of Microsoft Excel. Shabbir Nowsher from LCAL along with Sumaiya Siddiqua conducted the session for establishing such skills into the minds of the finalists. Experienced facilitators from NSU Finance Club were also active during the workshops to give hand-on help to the participants. To make things incredibly easy for all the registered competitors, YouTube videos of both these professional workshops were posted on the NSU Finance Club YouTube channel for everyone's convenience.

The final round of Excelsior 2018 was held on April 09 in NSU premises. During the final challenge, participants were provided with a case which was needed to be solved within a given period of time. Participants were given the task of solving innovatory sophisticated problems relating to professional work in business organisations. With the completion of this challenge, the top 10 participants will be selected and awarded certificates from the Department of Accounting and Finance, School of Business and Economics, North South University. The date of the prize giving ceremony will be decided soon.

Just as the tagline of Excelsior 2018 says, 'Learn, Implement, Excel'- all the participants went through same learning experience with Microsoft Excel and now are eagerly waiting for the final announcements.

The writer is currently studying BBA at North South University. She can be reached at [email protected]