Day Three of Microsoft Partner Learning Series: Microsoft Learning Paths (The Gift of Change)
Today is the third day of the Microsoft Partner twelve days of Learning Series and I am writing this up in the Blue Mountains with my family and sure enough outside Kookaburras are laughing. Today is about the Gift of Change.
We live and work in a changing world, the IT industry is constantly evolving. What this means, then, is that, if we are not constantly learning as we go about our day-to-day business, then each day we are getting further and further out of touch with the demands of the modern working world.
If you are like me, my own personal development seems to always get moved down my to do list, holding ourselves accountable for our own skills development can sometimes be hard with all the other commitments in our life.
From you our partners, we’ve learned that many of you may not know about one of our coolest and robust offerings: partner learning paths, which makes skills development easy to do. The Learning paths has change the way I keep current and I am sure it will also help you too.
Here is a fun, informative infographic that shows you what learning paths are and how you can use them:
In addition, here are some of the more commonly asked questions about learning paths.
Q: How have learning paths changed?
A: Partner learning paths have existed for quite a few years. They’ve always provided collections of training, laid out in step-by-step order, to help you achieve a specific goal. For example, maybe you want to learn more about a specific product or solution area – or, prepare to pass a required certification exam or assessment. In the past, you would need to bookmark each individual learning path’s URL or know how to find it on our Microsoft Partner Network website. The newest evolution of partner learning paths is much simpler. Now you can use one place – our partner learning path tool – to find all of the available learning paths. Paths are available by product, Microsoft competency, certification exam, and more.
Q: What are learning plans?
A: Learning paths show step-by-step training. A learning plan is a collection of these learning paths. With learning plans, you can set up customised training plans for yourself or your team, and track progress. For example, let’s say you want to learn about Microsoft cloud products. You can create an individual learning plan for yourself by adding learning paths about Microsoft cloud products such as Microsoft Azure and Windows Intune. Another scenario: Let’s say you need members of your Microsoft partner organisation team to meet varying sets of requirements to attain or renew a Microsoft competency. You can set up a plan for your team members and assign specific learning paths to specific people. For example, if you’re looking to attain the Gold Cloud Productivity competency, you could assign the Exam 70-346: Managing Office 365 Identities and Requirements learning path to Jane, and Exam 70-341: Core Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 to Roger. This way you can manage who is taking which training and certification exams to help your company meet requirements. And, you can send reminders to those individual team members to ensure they’re staying on track.
Q: Where can I learn more?
A: There’s a lot to unpack, so we created a video to show you all of the features of the tool.
Q: Where do I get started?
A: Visit the learning path tool, and sign in with your Microsoft account. Then start using the interactive features to take control of your learning!
If have questions around the Learning Path Tool, head over to Yammer and post your questions.