Yes, is it. Microsoft Certified Professional is dead and replaced with the new model of certification. Starting April 2019, they introduce role-based certification. Role-based certification directly address the need of the certification in the work field. If in the past we start the MCP by learning through technology standpoint (i.e. Web, Desktop, Enterprise). today we start our journey of certification through role-based certification. You can start your journey by visiting https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/browse-all-certifications.aspx. As you can see on the link, the certification changes so much.
//
You can see the job-role and you can select the technology, certification type, and certification level. The role-based is the main way to obtain the certification today. Yes, you can see the old certification model like MCSE, MCSD, and others before expired in certification type. Starting April 2019, they proposed four types certification
Technical certification (Replacing the MCP, MTA) – IT Certification
Office Certification (MOS) – Information Worker Certification
Microsoft Certified Educator (MCE) – Educator Certification
Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) – Trainer Certification
The changes happen on MCP and MTA. The technical certification proposes three level of certification level fundamental (in the past we name as MTA), associate (in the past we know it as MCSA), and expert (in the past we know it as MCSE/MCSD). You can select DevOps Engineer and it will show you the certification level. MCP is dead, it is time to select the new certification!
//
Trainer is a huge job with a dozen responsibility. The huge job is to educate and share you’re best knowledge to the participant in short time with several constraints such as lack of hardware,, lack of participant commitment, and lack of training budget. As a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Microsoft Certified Educator, I will share you several tips to deliver your training by following tips. Tips 1 – Understanding the types of training Training or some of them called it as a workshop is a short time learning to understand one or more topics. On Microsoft itself, there are three types of training namely, Clinic, Camp, and Course (Simple said as 3C). The different is how you deliver them. Table 1 shows you the characteristics for each training. Character Clinic Camp Course Duration length a day length one – three days length one week or more Purposes Problem Solving and awareness Fundamental knowledge and enrichment Building skills and competence Deliverable Hands on OR Seminar Hands On AND Lecture Lecturing, DIscussion, and Hands On Good for Technology Campaign Preparation Certification College Credits / Professional Development Tips 2 – Choosing the proper Material As a MCT, we have a lot of choice of material. Therefore, we should choose the proper material based on the training types. In order to do that we should know, what kind of material that we have E-learning. This kind of material is great as a suplement for Cliinic and Camp for students. Microsoft Virtual Academy is the best free e-learning that available for Microsoft technological course, for people want to find further e-learning they can subscribe the Pluralsight, Lynda, WintellectNow, and many more. You can create your own material using the e-learning above to fit the timeline and audience. E-Reference. Microsoft has a good library subscription called Microsoft E-Reference. It collaborates with Safari Books to provide +800 books for your preparation with just 250$. This can be great for a course model. Furthermore, you can subscribe the more premium one 399$/year on Safari Books Online,. You can use e-reference to help you create custom materials for a course, camp. Courseware. Delivering a camp or a course, you can use the MOC and Digital Courseware. You can access both services use the MCT member portal. This courseware will give you a complete solution to deliver a course. For academic, they also have MOAC that combine both technological and pedagogy aspect. Tips 3 – Preparing The Material The course material should understand the iron triangle of learning which are audience level, course duration, and available infratsructure. Creating a good material start from considering the “iron triangle of learning”. For example, it is imposible for participants to use VM from MOC when the hardware not allowed to use VM. The ideas is you should consider to er-adjust the material. Here are the tips. Start looking the compatible course material on Tips 2. Find the closest relation with your course. For MOC, MOAC you can skip this step. Asking the client or your organization to fullfill the hardware and software need. For example, on MOC you will understand why hardware level is really important during a course for customer satisfication. if is not possible to fullfill the requirements, it is time to consider to create custom learning material Understanding the timeline and the audience. When create a material, please consider to give extra time or even extra material if the course is faster or slower than the plan. Tips 4 – Never Forget the Documentation Yes, you should prepare at least three things before the course is started which are: A place to store your learning material. it can be as shared folder on a LAN, Cloud Storage, or on yours e-learning website A place to put the documentation such as photos and attendees list A place to submit the course feedback like MTM (Metric that Metters) or might be a feedback form from online or offline form. Tips 5 – Budget yourself to do a course and a certification Each year please invest a time to join online course, read a book that you need for delivering a course such as public speaking, teachning methods, or even teaching with technology, and pass the related certification. This kind of habits will make you a stronger trainer.
As Microsoft Certified Trainer, we delivered a training through a virtualization and most of it you will use hyper-V as a standard of virtualization technology. However, many labs on MOC (Microsoft Official Curriculum) uses Level 7 Hardware. It means you will need at least 8 GB Memory, and 1000 TB hard disk with 7200 RPM. Unfortunately, although you will have the hardware, the client will have same difficulty. for example, you deliver training on outside classroom without sufficient hardware. This article will help you to prepare the limited infrastructure scenario. Building your own hardware If you need to bring your own laptop, the idea of this laptop is should separate from your daily laptop. It should as clean as possible with the specification below Laptop with 13.3 or larger to make sure you have better visibility on delivering the session. 12 inch will work but you should make sure that it has capability to display at least 760p 500 GB hard drive or larger. You need a lot of extra spaces to host many VM. Therefore, you should have at least 500 GB. SSD will great but if you can’t achieve it you can use Traditional hard disk, hybrid disk, or combination between traditional hard disk with ready boost SD Card / Flash drive Wireless mouse, external hard drive, and spare USB flash drive will help you when you should share a quick content Screen projector at least HD Resolution 768p Screen connector like HDMI cable converter, VGA, and others. Preparing the Software So after you have sufficient mobile hardware, it is time to prepare your software please check it out: Windows 8.1 Professional or Windows Server 2012. There is no way for you to use Windows 8.1 single language or even Windows 7 64 bit, since we need the Hyper-V features. Microsoft OneNote for note taking software when you discuss a content with the participants OneDrive cloud storage for sync your content A development server that can be used with remote desktop connection. This will help you when you need a quick demo but you don’t have sufficient hardware on your mobile. i.e. Doing a demo for TFS load testing (non cloud) Download this ALM VM for a great content and demo Last but not least, make sure your software is minimalist. For example, you don’t need to install Visual Studio if your VM already have the Visual Studio on it. That’s it, enjoy your life as a trainer of ALM Visual Studio