22 August, 2022 17:14

With the wealth of learning resources available for you to skill up on Azure, where do you start? If you’re on your own, in a work group, or in a large enterprise, figuring out where to begin and how to proceed with your learning journey can be challenging. This post is like a multi-tool—it gives you quick access to all the different Microsoft Learn resources available to you. Plus, it explains how these resources support your skilling journey in diverse ways and can help you take your skills to the next level, whether you’re just starting out in IT or you’re a seasoned professional.

Our aim is to help you map out—and take the next steps on—your personal learning journey. And we have lots of new resources this quarter to help you meet your goals.

Let’s get started! These are the topics we’ve prepared for you

  • Key resources to chart, start, or continue your journey
  • Prove your skills with Azure certifications
  • From multicloud to GitHub, join us at an upcoming event
  • Creating a learning culture? See how others do it
  • Don’t forget to celebrate your Azure skills

Key resources to chart, start, or continue your journey

What do you need for your learning journey? The following summary brings together the key resources available to help you chart your course and make progress toward the next steps. Investigate these resources—particularly the new Azure Skills Navigator guides and the Azure Training Journey—all of which offer the kind of high-level view you can use to map out your learning plan and track your progress.

Set your roadmap by role with the Azure Training Journey

Review this at-a-glance overview for sharpening your cloud skills, and discover how to make the most of Azure training and certification. In the Azure Training Journey, find courses, training opportunities, and other essential information to help set you up for success.

Jump-start your learning journey with the new Azure Skills Navigator guides

If you’re just starting out with Azure, the new Azure Skills Navigator guides are for you. These role-based, downloadable guides offer carefully selected digital training, courses, videos, documents, certifications, and more.

Find your role here, and then explore the guides that best suit your learning needs.

Role Topics
Azure Skills Navigator for System Administrators Fundamental concepts of cloud computing and Azure core infrastructure services, management, monitoring, security, and compliance
Azure Skills Navigator for Solutions Architects Fundamentals of Azure, core solutions, solution design principles, including security and compliance, and deployment tools and methods to help bring your solution architectures to life
Azure Skills Navigator for Developers How to architect and deploy apps in the cloud and how to maintain and instrument those apps after they’re deployed
Azure AI Learning Journey for Developers A solid foundation for achieving expertise with Azure AI solutions
Azure Data Engineer Learning Path Data engineering for Azure professionals, with a focus on Azure Synapse Analytics
Azure Data Scientist Learning Journey Innovative solutions to complex problems with Azure Machine Learning
Azure Database for MySQL:MySQL Developer Learning Journey Building and deploying applications for MySQL in Azure

Find the details you need in the Azure training and certifications guide

A comprehensive overview of certifications, the Azure training and certifications guide is organized by job role so you can find all the certifications relevant to you in one place, along with suggested resources to get ready for them. This is a fantastic way to review what you want to achieve. Then go to the Azure Skills Navigator guides to see how to meet those goals.

Study at your speed with self-paced training on Microsoft Learn

Access hundreds of free, interactive, self-paced learning paths and modules covering cloud computing, AI, security, databases, and other topics—localized into multiple languages. The following are some of our recent releases.

Audience / role New and refreshed modules and learning paths
Azure administrator, Azure solutions architect New: Analyze performance indicators for Azure Blob Storage. Learn how to describe performance characteristics of Azure Blob Storage and the Azure Premium Blob Storage tier.
Data analyst, data professional New: Level up: Azure enterprise data analyst. This collection of learning paths helps you prepare for Exam DP-500: Designing and Implementing Enterprise-Scale Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI, required to earn the Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate certification.
Azure solutions architect,
IT pro		 New: AZ-305 Microsoft Azure Architect Design Prerequisites. This learning path offers 10 practical modules that explore the basic Azure concepts you need to know as an Azure infrastructure architect.
IT pro, Azure administrator, Azure solutions architect New: Improve SAP seller productivity with Microsoft Teams and Power Platform. In this module, find out how to integrate SAP Sales and Service Core with Teams and how to build Power Automate flows that integrate with SAP applications.
Windows Server hybrid administrator,
Azure administrator,
IT pro		 New: Ready to learn how to innovate anywhere with Azure Arc and a comprehensive portfolio of hybrid solutions. Discover our official collection of hybrid and multicloud digital event learning resources.
IT pro, Azure administrator, Azure solutions architect New: Azure Center for SAP Solutions resources. Learn how to plan for, migrate, deploy, and run SAP solutions on Azure using reference architectures and tools offered by Microsoft and our partners with our new Azure Center for SAP Solutions, and be sure to check out our SAP on Azure training videos.
Azure solutions architect, IT pro Refreshed: Cloud Adoption Framework. Check out the updated Strategy and Ready modules in this learning path, along with the newly added Security module. Plus, we cross-linked a recently published standalone Organize module.
Azure administrator, IT pro Refreshed: Introduction to Azure Arc. In this updated module, explore how Azure Arc provides a centralized approach to managing Windows and Linux servers and Kubernetes clusters.
Database administrator Refreshed: Level up: Azure database administrator. This collection of learning paths helps you prepare for Exam DP-300: Administering Relational Databases on Microsoft Azure, which is required to earn the Azure Database Administrator Associate certification.

Learn Live with subject matter experts and a great community

Join us for these live and on-demand learning experiences, where subject matter experts guide you—and developers around the world—through Microsoft Learn modules. Earn badges, prepare for certifications, and Learn Live with a great community.

Get the latest information: Microsoft Learn on Azure.com

We recently launched Azure.com/earn to help organizations and individuals easily discover ways to learn Azure skills—on Microsoft Learn, through tech events, and with curated, role-based learning paths. This is a great place to get the latest news on training events and opportunities.

Prove your skills with Azure certifications

What’s new: Azure certifications

This quarter, two certification exams went live:

Develop strategies for exam day with the new Exam Readiness Zone

Boost your exam readiness! With the new Exam Readiness Zone on Microsoft Learn, find out exactly how to prepare for exam day:

  • Delve into comprehensive study guides that provide links to all the pertinent training resources in Microsoft Learn, including recommended learning paths.
  • Watch exam prep videos, led by Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCTs), for insights on how and what to study. Discover strategies for allocating study time, and get details about the specific topics and skills to be measured.
  • Easily locate the always-available study and prep resources from exam pages.

Find resources in the Exam Readiness Zone to help you gear up for Exam AZ-104, Exam AZ-204, Exam AZ-305, Exam AZ-500, Exam AZ-800, and Exam AZ-801, and watch for more in the near future.

Up for a challenge? Friendly competition helps you develop real-world skills

Cloud Skills Challenges are a fun way to set Microsoft Learn goals for yourself. By signing up for a challenge, you have 30 days to build skills with a specific collection of content and get feedback on your progress. With 30 Days to Learn It, if you meet the goal of completing your challenge within 30 days, you might even qualify for a 50 percent discount on your certification exam. Recently released Cloud Skills Challenges include:

  • Azure Cosmos DB Developer. Start developing cloud-native applications with a fully managed NoSQL database. In about 20 hours, learn how to build, scale, and optimize modern applications on Azure with Azure Cosmos DB.
  • Azure Virtual Desktop Fundamentals. Learn how to plan the architecture for an Azure Virtual Desktop deployment, manage access and security, manage user environments and apps, and monitor and maintain an Azure Virtual Desktop environment.

Explore more challenges with 30 Days to Learn It.

Don’t let your hard-earned certification lapse

You’ve worked hard to earn your Microsoft Certifications, proving you have what it takes to keep pace with evolving technology and to succeed in today’s digital world. Did you know that, unless renewed, Microsoft role-based and specialty certifications expire every year? The convenient annual Microsoft Certification renewal process helps ensure that you’re up to speed on the latest technology.

Renewing your certification is free—but it requires that you act before your certification expires. Learn everything you need to know about renewing your certification.

Get the big picture on Azure certifications

Our convenient and comprehensive visualization of Azure certifications shows how they relate to managing cloud infrastructure, data and analytics, and application development, all within an environment that’s built to be secure from the ground up. Use the Azure certification poster to help align your certification journey with your goals in these areas.

From multicloud to GitHub, join us at an upcoming event

Join Microsoft Learn at these upcoming events:

  • VMware Explore, August 29–September 1, 2022. Register for VMware Explore to learn about our training offerings to help you map your multicloud journey.
  • Data Platform Virtual Summit 2022, September 19–23, 2022. Join the data community at this exciting virtual learning event, focused on Azure data, analytics, and AI. Register now for Data Platform Virtual Summit 2022.
  • GitHub Universe 2022: Beyond Code, November 9–10, 2022. Attend in person or stream the event, where you learn about moving to the cloud, the adoption of AI, and the increasing importance of security across the entire lifecycle. Explore and register for GitHub Universe.
  • PASS Data Community Summit, November 15–18, 2022. Don’t miss one of the year’s largest gatherings of data platform professionals. Connect, share, and learn with thousands of your peers from the global data platform community. Check out the offerings, and register for this year’s PASS Data Community Summit, which you can attend in person or stream online.
  • Watch the free Azure Hybrid, Multicloud, and Edge Day on demand, if you missed the event or want to refresh your memory. Find out how to innovate anywhere with Azure Arc and a comprehensive portfolio of hybrid solutions.

Creating a learning culture? See how others do it

Learn how organizations from around the world are developing a learning culture as a key strategy in their journey to the cloud. Read these case studies to learn how you can skill up on Azure, and get inspired by best practices that support employees and teams in other organizations.

Don’t forget to celebrate your Azure skills

It takes dedication to earn a new Azure skill or certification. After you’ve passed a certification exam or completed your training and are ready to put your new skills to work, be sure to celebrate your Azure skills with your network.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-learn-blog/skilling-up-on-azure-explore-this-quarter-s-key-new-resources/ba-p/3595137
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-learn-blog/skilling-up-on-azure-explore-this-quarter-s-key-new-resources/ba-p/3595137
2022-08-22 17:00:00Z

Filed Under: MSLearn