Enhancing education: AUEB helps students compete in the job market with Microsoft Learn for Educators

One of the most prestigious universities in Greece, Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) is the oldest educational institution in the country specializing in economics, business administration, and IT applications. Its cutting-edge programs for undergraduates and postgraduates attract thousands of students from Greece and other parts of the world each year. At the beginning of 2008, to help its students transition to and succeed in the workforce upon graduation, the Department of Management Science and Technology (DMST) of AUEB updated its curriculum to include the most modern cutting-edge technology.

Fifteen years ago, George Ioannou, Professor of Production and Operations Management at DMST/AUEB, was the first to integrate Microsoft applications in his lectures. “Companies were implementing the latest technology at the time. Students would gain an advantage by knowing how to use various IT applications in a business setting where cutting-edge technologies are applied” explains Prof. G. Ioannou.

Having more relevant curricula and the increase in students’ competitiveness in the job market boosted the university’s reputation, especially of the Department (DMST). To be able to sustain these achievements, DMST/AUEB’s next step was ensuring that more professors could effectively teach applications of digital technology. 

Building students’ skills to industry standards

The Department of Management Science and Technology at AUEB recently adopted Microsoft Learn for Educators to make further steps in adapting its curriculum to today’s market needs. The program provides free resources, training, and support to educators, so they can build their students’ skills to industry standards.  

The new curriculum covers Microsoft Azure technologies, Dynamics 365, and Power BI to make accessible enterprise resource planning (ERP) ecosystems to students, an essential component of business training nowadays. Prof. G. Ioannou says, “Through Microsoft Learn for Educators, incorporating the fundamentals and core principles of these programs was easy. We also created dedicated labs for Dynamics 365 ERP fundamentals, so students can have hands-on training for managing ERPs and learn from real business examples. We aim to equip students with the necessary skills and tools to have a competitive edge in their future careers.”

Students are showing great interest in those classes. “We organized additional, non-compulsory lessons for them, not only on Azure AI, but also on Power BI. We actually had more students registering than we could fill in the classes. And we had 100% participation,” says Prof. G. Ioannou.

Being more competitive in the job market

Furthermore, students at AUEB can be certified for these new technologies. Students can obtain them by studying classroom material without additional costs. “Microsoft certifications are crucial in ensuring students’ competitiveness. As a result, over 80% of our students, secure jobs before graduation,” underlines Prof. G. Ioannou. “We expect to have more than 250 students certified at the end of this year.”

The success of DMST/AUEB students inspires AUEB to develop the curriculum of all its other departments and go even further. “We now aim to incorporate tools related to business analytics into our undergraduate and graduate programs. We’re also collaborating closely with the top management at Microsoft Greece to identify the next disruptive tools for businesses. We want to be the first to introduce these new tools into our curriculum and keep giving our students a competitive advantage,” concludes Prof. G. Ioannou.