Blog Post

Microsoft Learn Blog
2 MIN READ

Our commitment to help build AI skills in higher education

jeanaj's avatar
jeanaj
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Sep 12, 2025

Explore how we’re helping higher education faculty everywhere confidently bring AI into the classroom and spark student success.

Last week, Microsoft announced a new set of commitments to ensure students and educators are equipped with the most critical skills to thrive in an AI-powered economy. These efforts are about more than access—they’re about impact. By delivering cutting-edge tools, training, and verified credentials, we’re helping faculty across all higher education institutions lead more confidently in the classroom and embrace all the ways that AI can accelerate growth for themselves and their students. Through faculty and educators, we’re preparing students everywhere to participate fully—and lead boldly—in the AI economy.

Microsoft Learn for Educators AI Bootcamps at no cost—Limited-time offer

To support institutions globally, we’re opening over 2,500 slots in our Microsoft Learn for Educators (MSLE) AI Bootcamps, available at no cost to all higher education faculty members. From September 15, 2025 through September 30, 2025, faculty from all disciplines can attend the Generative AI for Teaching Bootcamp, the Foundational AI Bootcamp, and the Cybersecurity and AI Bootcamp. All sessions are virtual, offered across multiple time zones, and taught in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Brazilian Portuguese. Whether faculty have a technical or non-technical background, these bootcamps provide valuable skills and resources to help them empower students for success in an AI-driven job market. Sign up today for an MSLE AI Bootcamp.

 

Sign up for an MSLE AI Bootcamp

Expanding AI skilling through community and technical college partnerships

We recognize the unique value of community colleges in the United States. We’re excited to announce our partnerships with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and the National Applied AI Consortium (NAAIC) to help build AI skills and support AI adoption.

Through these partnerships, we’ll provide training at no cost for community college faculty and staff, ultimately benefiting over 10 million students in the United States. These training sessions will help community college faculty prepare for in-demand AI credentials and certifications, including the Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals certification. Faculty and staff can now sign up for the trainings that launch later this month at the NAAIC.

 

Sign up for AI training with the NAAIC

 

As we look ahead, the opportunity to empower higher education faculty, and through them, millions of students, has never been more urgent or more promising. By working together across institutions, industries, and borders, we can ensure that every faculty member has the tools and confidence to lead in an AI-powered world.

Updated Sep 12, 2025
Version 1.0

1 Comment

  • dinho's avatar
    dinho
    Copper Contributor

    This sounds awesome! I love seeing Microsoft put so much effort into helping teachers learn about AI. The fact that it's free and available in different languages is really cool. What I think is great is that they're including teachers from ALL subjects, not just the tech ones. At https://closely.ai/, we see this all the time - teachers want to use AI tools but sometimes feel like they need to be super tech-savvy first. Our platform makes it way easier for any teacher to start using AI in their classroom without all the complicated stuff.

    The community college partnerships are smart too. Those schools help so many people get job training, so getting their teachers up to speed with AI makes total sense. I'm wondering - after teachers take these bootcamps, how will Microsoft know if they're actually helping students? It would be cool to see some follow-up on that. For schools that want to keep building on what they learn in these Microsoft courses, https://closely.ai/ can be a great next step. We help teachers figure out what's working in their classrooms and make their lessons even better using AI insights.

    Thanks for posting this! With the September 30th deadline coming up fast, I'm definitely going to tell my teacher friends about it. This kind of training is exactly what education needs right now.