The Plus Experience, an entrepreneur student program, is a training initiative that was created to address industry specific workforce readiness skills for individuals working in targeted clusters of technology development. The core program consists of business soft skills i.e. communication, critical thinking and problem solving to name a few as well as product life cycle management and world class customer service.  To address additional areas of workforce readiness skills that need to be developed, a significant need for talent emerged in the Microsoft Partner Channel and beyond as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) technologies continue to impact productivity and business success. A Microsoft Office SharePoint class dedicated to teaching students how to drill down into the architectural layers of this complex application platform and incorporate "real world" code examples and scenarios is critical to targeted industry clusters. While there are other SharePoint classes executed on, none have delved into the development side of the program and this proficiency is critical for preparing students with the extensive skills required to develop on this cutting-edge platform.  

In an effort to address this need, Enterprise University (http://www.enterpriseuniversity.com) has stepped up to facilitate the MOSS classes.  Enterprise University along with the resources of  Valley City State University in Valley City, North Dakota is offering classes to educate students on the this emerging and powerful business application.  Under the direction of Rick Ross (rick.ross@vcsu.edu), the delivery of the classes are a direct result of engaging one of Microsoft’s leading Sharepoint MVP’s (Most Valuable Professional) to assist in the training and curriculum design for  the development level instruction. The direct benefit to students will be the ability to gain a head start in an important new technology by participating in the subsequent classes which will ultimately provide them with immediate and concrete benefits for their careers.

The Plus Experience is dedicated to building a talent pool in North Dakota that can “hit the ground running.”  In the current economic times, it is more important than ever to assist students interested in technology related employment opportunities to enhance and acquire sought after skill sets.