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Microsoft Learning, MPN Capability Development, the Small Business Competency team and the Microsoft Office team bring you an exciting opportunity to learn to plan and deploy Office 365. As organizations recognize the benefits of providing users with anywhere-access to cloud-based email and scheduling, web conferencing, file sharing, collaboration and Office Web Apps at a low predictable monthly cost, demand for certified Office 365 expertise is climbing sharply in the enterprise and small business space.

Tailored for Microsoft Partners pursuing Office 365 Certification
Leveraging the popular “Jump Start” virtual classroom approach, two of Microsoft’s most gifted Office 365 experts will lead an accelerated, engaging and demo-rich learning experience designed to teach Microsoft Partners and IT Pros the concepts and technologies covered on Microsoft exam 70-321 Deploying Office 365 as well as the prerequisite exam 70-323 (Administering Office 365).

Office 365 Jump Start “2 for 1” Learning Event -- REGISTER NOW 
May 30 – June 1, 2012 from 9:00am – 4:00pm Pacific Time via live virtual classroom (online from wherever you are); no hands-on labs.

(1) “Administering Office 365 Accelerated Jump Start” (FREE & recommended pre-requisite)

• May 30: Accelerated, 1-day preparation for Exam 70-323 (Administering Office 365)
• Audience: Tailored for IT professionals with core skills in configuration of all Office 365 technologies (Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online, Office 365 platform) looking to brush up on skills prior to taking 70-323.

(2) “Planning & Deploying Office 365 Jump Start” (FREE)

• May 31-June 1: 2-day preparation for Exam 70-321 (Deploying Office 365)
• Audience: Tailored for consultants and IT professionals who plan and implement Office 365, including migrations to Office 365 (simple and hybrid deployments).

REGISTER NOW

Next up in the Microsoft Jump Start Series:
Windows Server 2012: Preparing for the Datacenter Evolution! Don't miss this! Register now: http://aka.ms/WS2012-Jump

What’s a “Jump Start” Course?
Training specifically designed for experienced technologists whose jobs demand they know how to best leverage new, emerging Microsoft technologies. These advanced courses assume a certain level of expertise and domain knowledge, so they move quickly and cover topics in a fashion that enables teams to effectively map new skills to real-world situations.

You’ve heard of slacktivism, but have you heard of geektivism? You’ll get to see it in action at TechEd!

If you’re headed to TechEd this June, think about volunteering. Thanks to a partnership with GeekGive (which was born at TechEd 2009) there will be a number of opportunities to give back to the community while you’re soaking up the conference…and the sun.

Here are the details:

Saturday, June 9, you can:

·         Work with Habitat for Humanity to build a house in the Orlando area.

·         Work with the Coalition for the Homeless to serve meals to those in need.

• In conjunction with the Foundation for Hospital Art, attendees can help create colorful paintings and murals that will be installed in a local Orlando hospital.  No artistic experience necessary!  Click here for more details about the Foundation for Hospital Art.  
• Attendees will also have opportunities to assemble care packages for pediatric in-patients in the Orlando area.  We’ll be packaging toiletries, games, puzzles, books and more, as well as writing notes of encouragement to be delivered to Ronald McDonald House and local hospitals after the event.  Help bring smiles to those that need it most.

Join fellow TechEd attendee’s in giving back while getting geeky! 

Microsoft Learning and the Windows Server Product Marketing team are excited to bring you a new two-day Jump Start covering Windows Server 2012! Of course, the entire IT industry is excited about this new release and we believe this Jump Start will show you why. On June 21-22, from 9:00am – 4:00pm PDT, join Microsoft Senior Technical Evangelist Rick Claus and Microsoft Partner Corey Hynes as they walk you through their personal favorite feature sets and answer why and how each can improve your day-to-day IT environment.

Cloud-Optimize your IT with Windows Server 2012!

• Course: “Windows Server 2012: Preparing for the Datacenter Evolution”
• Date/Time: June 20-21, 2012 from 9:00am – 4:00pm PST
• Where: Live virtual classroom (online from wherever you are)
• Cost: FREE!
• Instructors: Microsoft Technical Evangelist Rick Claus and Microsoft Partner Corey Hynes
• Target audience: IT Professionals and IT Decision Makers
• What: "Jump Start" courses are accelerated, engaging and demo-heavy sessions tailored for early adopters and experienced technologists. They are advanced and assume a certain level of expertise, so they move quickly and cover topics in a fashion that enables teams to effectively map new skills to real-world situations. 

REGISTER NOW

COURSE OUTLINE (details)

Day One
Morning | Beyond Virtualization
• Game changers in the next release of the Hyper-V role on Windows Server 2012
• Massive scale increases, networking improvements, replication and disaster recovery is all in the box
Afternoon | Manageability
• Learn how you can manage a few systems up to a hundred – all from one console
• Server Core installs scaring you off? Learn about all your installation and management options
• Windows PowerShell automation and management at scale – all with built in tools
• Clustering—Cluster-aware updating
• Networking, Network Teaming, network configuration, SMB MultiChannel and RDMA

Day Two
Morning | Storage
• Learn how Continuous Availability of File Services improves workload reliability and performance
• Storage groups, disk provisioning, iSCSI and SAN integration
Afternoon | Remote Users
• Remote connectivity options for your workforce (DA)
• VDI and Remote Desktop Services deployment and changes

What’s a “Jump Start” Course?
Training specifically designed for experienced technologists whose jobs demand they know how to best leverage new, emerging Microsoft technologies. These advanced courses assume a certain level of expertise and domain knowledge, so they move quickly and cover topics in a fashion that enables teams to effectively map new skills to real-world situations.

REGISTER NOW

I am truly energized after having just attended the 3rd International Congress on Technology and Vocational Education and Training in Shanghai (TVET) - what a remarkable assembly of leading educators, administrators, political decision makers, subject matter experts, NGOs, industry representatives and journalists from around the world.

The event has attracted more than 800 representatives from 117 member states of the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

After attending the sessions, it's clear that the the concept of "TVET" is widely accepted and seemingly well understood globally. But for me, it feels like the perfect time to update our traditional understanding of TVET, especially the Technical part of it. A lot has happened since the first two TVET conferences in Berlin (1987) and Seoul (1999). Technology has accelerated beyond our wildest expectations, shaping and driving how we work, live and learn in unprecedented ways. Two decades ago we did not anticipate the pervasive availability of broadband connectivity and the explosion of cell phones, let alone the general acceptance of smart and mobile devices of all kinds. The digitization and streaming of content had barely started in those days, and we used to buy printed books and get our music and videos on discs. Personal productivity tools were limited to personal computers, rather than services available anywhere and anytime. Social computing was in its infancy, Facebook was years away, and no one would have ever considered using “cloud” and “computing” in the same sentence.

Hence for me, “Transforming TVET”, the motto of this year's TVET conference, is really appropriate in more than one way. It’s not just how TVET itself evolves, but rather how technology is transforming occupations and workforce development as a whole. What’s happening is revolutionary: technical and vocational skills are moving quickly from being a less appreciated branch of a country’s training and workforce development to center-stage, changing the education and workforce system as a whole.

This transformational change has been confirmed by researchers. IDC, for example, predicts that the percentage of all jobs requiring some technology skills will grow from 50% today to 77% in the next decade. In fact, they estimate that 60% of the jobs that will exist in 10 years do not even exist today. Imagine what that means for our education and training systems – preparing young people for occupations yet to be invented! And yet, the signs of things to come are clearly visible now, we just have to pay more attention to them and analyze them appropriately under the skills and employability lens.

Let me share a couple of experiences with you that I have personally encountered recently, showing that these occupational changes are all around us. A few months ago, I had to have the headlights on my car repaired. My car is really nothing fancy, but it is a last generation model. Knowing how easy it was to change a light bulb in my previous cars, I first tried to do it myself, and soon realized that I needed a trained professional. When I showed up at my local repair shop for assistance, the car mechanic took a quick look and immediately told me that he was not able to help me. He explained that my car has “smart lights” that anticipate the flow of the road ahead of me and he did not have the software necessary to calibrate the car’s headlights. When I asked him about his approach to hiring and training, he confirmed that knowledge of computers and software are absolutely a must-have for his employees today.

About one year ago, I broke one of my dental crowns (a lot of breaking going on in my life, now that I think about it). Accustomed to the procedures of manufacturing and fitting crowns, I got ready for a ten-day ordeal with at least two visits to the dentist. Imagine my surprise when I was all set and done in one session lasting not even 60 minutes! What happened? Well, my dentist was using the latest replacement technology which combined the holistic photographic mapping of my broken tooth with a kind of 3-D “printing” of the replacement crown immediately in his practice. I find this absolutely amazing and wonderfully effective for the patient. And, needless to say, both he and his medical technical assistants had to go through additional technology training to master this new computer-based medical procedure.

When I visited one of the vocational schools in Washington State in the USA, for plumbers and pipefitters, the trainers described how being good at welding and other manual skills associated with their trade is not sufficient to ensure employment any longer. With most of the planning done nowadays on computers, using CAD and other advanced software is a must for their apprentices. And with environmental protection, energy conservation, and broader green technology requirements becoming commonplace, the technology skills expectations for plumbers and pipefitters have increased dramatically. It did not surprise me when a local air conditioning producer described himself to me as being “in the software development business”. The hardware is becoming a commodity and their competitive strengths lie in the value they create by embedding innovative software into their air conditioning appliances.

These are not isolated cases of occupational and vocational changes. Almost all successful products today are an inseparable blend of hardware, technology and embedded software applications. Even most service oriented occupations are undergoing a similar transformation driven by technology advancements. Providing effective customer services in the hospitality, travel or retail industry is virtually impossible today without the use of cutting-edge technology. The sophisticated application of information and communications technology (ICT) allows companies to have a much deeper understanding of their customers’ needs and the ability to sell to them in more efficient ways. Effective customer relationship management requires technology. Even small businesses need staff who understands how to create and maintain web pages, use social computing for marketing, and other productivity tools for planning, purchasing and selling.

Last year the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) very appropriately stated that “skills are the key to the prosperity of nations and to better lives for individuals in the 21st century”. In their view, providing the appropriate skills to their citizens will “contribute to economic growth both directly, through increased productivity, and indirectly, by creating greater capacity to adopt new technologies and ways of working and to spur innovation” (www.oecd.org/dataoecd/58/27/47769000.pdf, OECD 2011). I could not agree more. It’s all about getting people, especially young people, the appropriate skills they need to be successful in today’s and tomorrow’s workplace. Our world will be even faster paced, globally connected and competing, shaped and driven by technology and innovation. That’s why technical and vocational education and training is truly a global concern. That’s why TVET is vital for ensuring a productive workforce, advancing sustainable development and economic growth. That’s why pressing social challenges, like the unacceptable level of youth unemployment worldwide, cannot be resolved without evolving and transforming technical and vocational education.

To help address these global challenges and turn them into opportunities, Microsoft is partnering with international organizations like United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), UNESCO and the development banks, to help bring cutting-edge technology to education and training, helping to make it more effective and scalable, more widely available, less costly, more student-centric and engaging. Through our own programs such as Partners in Learning, IT Academy and DreamSpark, Microsoft supports the seamless integration of technology into learning inside and outside the classroom, equipping teachers to deliver immersive education experiences. With the help of programs such as Imagine Cup, Student-To-Business and BizSpark, Microsoft makes it easier for students to move from learning to earning, and completing a Microsoft Certification prepares students for attractive, higher earning positions in the quickly changing labor market by effectively improving their employability today and tomorrow. Not surprisingly, we’ve seen already over seven million students and professionals worldwide take one of the industry recognized certifications from Microsoft.

As I said, it is truly inspiring and energizing to be part of an event like the UNESCO TVET Congress. The aspiration of this event was to identify better ways of “building skills for work and life”. The relationship between technology and skills development has never been more dynamic and vibrant than today. Speaker after speaker has given testament to the power of technology in transforming lives and helping to change the world, one local community and economy at a time.

Lutz Ziob, General Manager, Microsoft Learning

We had the pleasure of featuring our Psychometrician Liberty Munson on two tweetchats this week! For each one-hour chat, she was the voice behind @MSLearning. Our Twitter followers asked many great questions about certifications and exams. Liberty shared fascinating, behind-the-scenes facts about our exam development process, and also offered exam prep tips. Missed the tweetchats? We've got you covered. Simply replay them below and take notes. (Did you spot the picture of her dog Zenith?)

And... Liberty has joined the 21st century and started her own Twitter account! You can follow her @LibertyMunson, and chat her up about work, reading, outdoor adventures, etc.

This week's tweetchats were inspired by our community's wonderful responses to the Ask a Certification Expert (ACE) video series. You can find the entire playlist here. Subscribe to our channel while you're there because more new videos are coming! Got a question you want to have answered in an ACE video? Post it in a comment below, and you just might get an answer + a shout out in our next video!

Replay of the May 16 session:

Replay of the May 17 session:

This week, I have the honor of participating in the UNESCO Third International Congress on TVET (Shanghai, 13-16 May 2012).  Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is critical to the developing and addressing economic and social challenges like youth unemployment. The Congress will provide a global platform for knowledge sharing, reflection and debate on the changing landscape and the advancement of skill-development programs. As a technology industry partner, Microsoft will participate in discussions about Learning and Technology for 21st Century Work.

This is a very important topic to me personally. I believe that technology can change the world and improve people's lives. Advances such as cloud computing are enabling people to make a real impact for a better tomorrow, and will create opportunities for our future -- such as new industries and jobs -- which will build a foundation for future innovation and economic growth. Today's young people will become tomorrow's leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators and decision makers. They will be responsible for the world's future economic prosperity and social wellbeing.

With the continuing acceleration of technology and innovation, keeping up in today’s world requires the right skills, training and experiences in order to be prepared for the new jobs and opportunities.  Empowering young people means providing access to skills training and Microsoft Certifications that help students differentiate themselves in today’s competitive job market.  The IT industry is one of the few industries where there is growth not only in technology but also in jobs. There is a dire need for a technically skilled workforce and Microsoft Certifications provide the validation of skills that can help students get a job in IT. 

By helping youth capture opportunities for education and employment, we are helping them create their futures….we are helping them create real impact for a better tomorrow.  Programs such as Microsoft IT Academy are helping to enable employability, digital literacy and 21st-century workforce development through IT training and certification.  Today, there are more than 10,000 Microsoft IT Academies helping 7.5 million students and 750,000 educators around the world.  That’s impact!  

When the economy and jobs are top of mind in the world I am proud to be part of a company whose products and programs help local communities and economies by preparing students for job skills and employability that will equip them for a successful future.

- Lutz Ziob, General Manager of Microsoft Learning

About this Hands on Lab:

This new format only includes the steps to complete tasks and requires that the student to have access to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 with demo data, that is available on PartnerSource.

Audience

This Hands on Lab is appropriate for a partner that is familiar with the financials and supply chain modules of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. 

Note: This course is only available for download on PartnerSource and CustomerSource.

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy the course.

Kind regards

Claire Bremer Nielsen,

Senior Content Project Manager || Microsoft Learning

We are proud to announce that short answer code questions will soon be available in an exam near you. Short answer code questions test your ability to write code that will solve the problem described in the question.

To answer, you will type the necessary code into a free text entry field. Your answer is scored by comparing it to a list of possible correct answers. (And yes, many SMEs were involved in developing and reviewing the list of correct answers.)

Here are some key features about this question type:

• The question will specify any necessary information (e.g., table names, field names, variable names, etc.) needed to write the code.
• You can check the syntax of your answer to ensure the syntax is correct—this does NOT check to see if your answer is correct, though. It simply checks that the syntax is correct.
• Spelling matters, but if the misspelling is related to relevant names/words in the question, the syntax checker will highlight those errors as well. In other words, limited spell-checking is provided in addition to syntax checking.
• Usually rely on IntelliSense when writing code? No worries! We are providing a list of key words that will include many commonly used commands that you might use when writing code. And, we’ll continue to work through how to make IntelliSense available during exams with these types of questions.

This new question type will come as no surprise to some of you. We talked about it at Microsoft Certified Career Conference in March and blogged about it last October. For those of you who completed the survey associated with that blog post, we sincerely appreciate your participation, because it helped us refine and improve our prototype for this question type. In addition, the subject matter experts who wrote the questions you’ll see on your exam provided additional feedback on how to make short answer code questions more real-world and relevant.

We believe that short answer code questions will help distinguish those who are truly fluent at writing code.  Candidates who attempt exams without these skills will have a hard time with these questions. Candidates who are qualified will find that these questions are a more real-world and rigorous evaluation of their skills.

Curious about what these questions will look like? Check out this screen shot. We’ll provide a demo for you to learn more at a later date. Stay tuned!

Have you been enjoying the "Ask a Certification Expert" videos? I've been having a great time working with my team to film them! And, I love, love, love it when it's my turn to be on camera! By now, you have probably caught on to our cadence for releasing videos (every Friday!). Today's video touches on one of the four ways we gather feedback about our exams from our candidates--the comment process...not to give too much away, but we do actually read your comments. Check out the video to learn more! 

Of course, I'm having so much fun with this that many more videos are planned, and your questions will be answered over the next few months. But, if you have a question that you want answered now, no need to wait. Here's another opportunity for you to get those burning questions answered. I will be hosting a Tweetchat on May 16 at 7am - 8 am PT and May 17 at 7pm - 8pm PT. This is my first time tweeting (seriously...my phone doesn't even get text messages...yes, I'm totally serious), so I'm hoping you'll join me to help make my initiation into the world of tweeting a successful one. I will answer questions related to our certification exams--how we develop them, how you can get involved, different question types you might see on an exam, how we're making them more rigorous, how the changes to our certification program are impacting our exam content, and so on. Maybe I'll even share a picture of Zenith, my wonder dog! If there's something you want to know about our exams, I'm the person to ask!

To participate, follow @MSLearning and hastag #20yrs20ways. You've been following our videos...now's your chance to ask me questions live. I hope to tweet with you soon!

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNjq_uYfg7U]

And don't forget that you can always submit a question for an ACE video by commenting to this blog or sending an email to mslcd@microsoft.com. I have a long list of questions for us to film, but I would love to add yours to that list!