Amp Up your Learning in 2021

For the past several years, Microsoft has been working to move its elearning offering to a new platform called Microsoft Learn. The initiative started off a bit slow but has truly gained breadth and depth; enough so, that it warrants a blog post for those of you who may be unfamiliar with the plethora of assistance that’s available to help you improve your professional skills.

Getting Started

To get started, go to Microsoft Learn and create a profile. It’s not required that you create a profile, but if you do, you’ll have access to many educational features like:

· Accruing points, earn achievements and unlock badges.

· Tracking progress on learning activities.

· Using free Azure resources.

· Sharing progress with your colleagues.

How the Site is Structured

Learning Paths

You can follow a range of learning paths that are organized around a particular technology or software solution (Azure, Power Platform etc…), or a particular job role such as software developer or system administrator. The learning paths are comprised of modules, which can also be followed individually if you prefer.

Certifications

Microsoft certifications are a good way of showing your technical skills and your commitment to keeping up with the latest developments in your chosen professional field, for example, DevOps Engineer or Functional Consultant. If you’re just getting started, begin with the fundamentals learning options available here.

If you are already certified, Microsoft has a pandemic-related plan to renew certifications. In early February 2021, you’ll be able to renew your role-based and specialty certifications by passing a free renewal assessment on Microsoft Learn. You can read more about it here.

Instructor-led training

If your learning style is more suited to traditional in-person (or virtual) classroom education, or you’re not getting everything that you need out of the free modules and learning paths, then it might be worth looking at Instructor-led training. Microsoft offers training from its qualified experts. The courses are typically aimed at helping you achieve a specific certification.

Learn TV

This is a new one. Learn TV provides a variety of streaming video content, both live and pre-recorded. It’s designed as a single aggregation point for technical video content, bringing together live and on-demand content. It will take awhile for the breadth of content to be built out, but feel free to give it a go.

Keeping Up

Microsoft has a blog that tallies up all the changes on Microsoft Learn by product. The options keep changing all the time, so check back regularly to make certain you don’t miss any new offerings. There is also a Microsoft Learn Community Forum you can use to ask questions, but keep in mind it’s not for product-related questions, just queries regarding the learning platform.

For a general Q&A of what we’ve discussed here, you can always access the Microsoft FAQ. Happy learning in 2021!