Role certificates from Microsoft

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Certification confirms that you, as an IT professional, are aware of current trends and developments. Your new knowledge shows your technical competence as well as increases productivity in the company. Such certifications exist, for example, for Microsoft products and technologies . The manufacturer has revised its role model of certification. What exactly does this mean, what are the benefits and how can employees prepare for the exams?

The IT world is in constant and ever-increasing change. Training helps you learn about changes, new capabilities and tools, and learn new skills. Finally, employees can prove their professional competence with certification. They benefit not only themselves, but also the companies. At the same time, companies increase productivity because employees are optimally trained.

IT professionals themselves gain more knowledge, but not only that, the proof also looks good on their personal resumes. More than 90 percent of certified employees also feel that proof increases their professional credibility. Seventy-five percent feel happier at their jobs, and nearly 30 percent get more.

Microsoft certifications with new direction
Microsoft services are ubiquitous in digital and cloud companies. They use Azure cloud services, use collaboration tools and many other useful tools from Microsoft 365, use Dynamics 365 for resource planning or develop their own IT applications with Power Platform, using apps, automated workflows, visualized data and virtual agents.

In recent years, Microsoft has consistently focused its portfolio on the cloud. The vendor’s products are increasingly intertwined and online. Digital transformation typically means that the boundaries between services and technologies are becoming more porous and projects are becoming more complex. Task areas are no longer strictly separated from each other as they used to be. IT professionals now require more specialized knowledge.

Microsoft’s previous certification model could not keep up with this further development – it was no longer up to date. Because until now, the provider allowed for the confirmation of knowledge in large subject areas. The three classic certifications were Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA), Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD), and Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE).

Anyone who wanted to get certified in one of the complex areas had to deal with a lot of training material and put in a lot of effort – even if employees didn’t deal with some subfields at all in their day-to-day work.

As of February 2020, the three certifications can no longer be obtained this way. Existing certificates are still valid for two years. Microsoft has responded to increasingly specialized work environments with a general revision of its certificates: there are now 34 role-based certificates in the areas of Azure, modern workspaces and business applications.

The certificates, their content and requirements are constantly being adapted to current developments and thus remain flexible in their orientation. Accordingly, the training partners who prepare you for certification exams are constantly changing.

Role-based certification provides these benefits
Microsoft’s loose structure of role-based certifications offers a number of advantages:

New certifications are more precisely tailored to specific tasks and roles. Employees can flexibly and easily accumulate the knowledge they really need.
Employees focus on topics that are relevant to them.
Content is more practice-oriented, based on job descriptions and daily work.
Technological developments can be addressed more quickly than before and can be incorporated into training content.
Unlike previous certifications, both technology and expert level can be read directly from the role-based certification title. For example, there are “Associates” and “Experts,” the latter requiring additional qualifications. For example, titles can be Azure Associate Administrators or Azure Solution Architecture Experts.