Microsoft Credentials roundup: In-demand news for in-demand skills

[Stephen_Jensen]

At Microsoft Learn, we’re inspired every day to empower our learners on their skill-building journeys, whether they’re discovering how to use the latest technology, earning Microsoft Credentials, making a career move—or all of the above. To support and guide your changing skilling needs, we’re introducing a series of blog posts that highlight our credentials portfolio updates. We invite you to follow this series over the coming months for ongoing news as we evolve our credentials offerings. Our goal is to provide you with the technical skills necessary to excel in your training and career endeavors.

In this article

• Validate your tech skills with the latest Microsoft Credentials
  • Highlight your abilities with Microsoft Applied Skills
    • Explore new scenarios
    • Discover new language offerings
    • Make the most of Microsoft Cloud Skills Challenges
  • Prove you’re ready for in-demand job roles with Microsoft Certifications
    • Earn new certifications with beta exams for Fabric and Dynamics 365 Business Central
    • Find out how certification and exam retirements make way for new opportunities
  • Take charge of your career with Microsoft Credentials

 

Validate your tech skills with the latest Microsoft Credentials

As emerging technologies like AI rapidly evolve to meet business needs, more organizations are turning to a skills-first approach for finding the right talent—both in-house and externally. Microsoft Credentials, including our new Applied Skills and industry-recognized Microsoft Certifications, support that approach.

Highlight your abilities with Microsoft Applied Skills

Many learners have already taken the opportunity to earn Applied Skills. Because these credentials validate skills related to real-world technical scenarios, they’re also proving to be very popular with employers. Customers have told us that task-oriented skill-building and accreditation are effective for quickly applying competencies aimed at the solution components in their projects. For the latest offerings and details:

• Read Announcing Microsoft Applied Skills, the new credentials to verify in-demand technical skills.
• Watch Explore Microsoft Applied Skills.

 

Explore new scenarios

Released on January 17, 2024

We recently released the following Applied Skills:

• Deploy cloud-native apps using Azure Container Apps
• Develop generative AI solutions with Azure OpenAI Service
• Train and deploy a machine learning model with Azure Machine Learning
• Build collaborative apps for Microsoft Teams
• Create and manage model-driven apps with Power Apps and Dataverse

Coming soon

We look forward to offering new scenarios for implementing data lakehouses, data warehouses, and real-time analytics solutions with Microsoft Fabric.

To see the complete portfolio, check out our Applied Skills credentials poster.

 

Discover new language offerings

In other Applied Skills news, if your preferred language is Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, or Spanish, we’re pleased to share that the following credentials are now available in those languages:

• Build a natural language processing solution with Azure AI Language
• Build an Azure AI Vision solution
• Configure secure access to your workloads using Azure networking
• Configure SIEM security operations using Microsoft Sentinel
• Create an intelligent document processing solution with Azure AI Document Intelligence
• Create and manage automated processes by using Power Automate
• Create and manage canvas apps with Power Apps
• Deploy and configure Azure Monitor
• Deploy containers by using Azure Kubernetes Service
• Develop an ASP.NET Core web app that consumes an API
• Migrate SQL Server workloads to Azure SQL Database
• Secure Azure services and workloads with Microsoft Defender for Cloud regulatory compliance controls
• Secure storage for Azure Files and Azure Blob Storage

Available in multiple languages as of January 24, 2024

• Build collaborative apps for Microsoft Teams
• Create and manage model-driven apps with Power Apps and Dataverse
• Deploy cloud-native apps using Azure Container Apps
• Implement security through a pipeline using Azure DevOps

If the language set in your browser is one of those itemized, your assessment will be in that language.

Make the most of Microsoft Cloud Skills Challenges

Complete a Microsoft Cloud Skills Challenge with 30 Days to Learn It, which provides an engaging experience to help you prepare for an Applied Skills assessment or certification exam. Check out the challenges for:

• Azure AI Document Intelligence
• Azure AI Language
• Azure AI Vision
• Create Power Platform Solutions with AI and Copilot
• Generative AI with Azure OpenAI

After earning your Microsoft-verified credential, you can elevate your profile across your professional network by sharing the news of your new credentials on LinkedIn, leaving little doubt about your skills and expertise.

 

Prove you’re ready for in-demand job roles with Microsoft Certifications

Microsoft Certifications validate technical proficiency for in-demand job roles in infrastructure, data and AI, digital apps and innovation, Modern Work, business applications, and security. For all the latest offerings and details:

• Watch Explore Microsoft Certifications.
• Check out our Microsoft Certifications poster.

Earn new certifications with beta exams for Fabric and Dynamics 365 Business Central

The new Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate certification validates that you have the broad technical expertise to transform data into reusable analytics assets by using Microsoft Fabric components. And it proves your expertise in designing, creating, and deploying enterprise-scale data analytics solutions. To earn this certification, pass Exam DP-600: Implementing Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Fabric, currently in beta. For more details, read Validate your skills with our new certification for Microsoft Fabric Analytics Engineers and then take the beta exam.

The new Microsoft Certified: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Developer Associate certification offers you the opportunity to prove your skills in designing, developing, testing, and maintaining solutions, along with your ability to integrate Business Central with other applications, such as Microsoft Power Platform apps. To earn this certification, pass Exam MB-820: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Developer, currently in beta. For specifics, read Validate your skills: New certification for Dynamics 365 Business Central Developers and then take the beta exam.

Find out how certification and exam retirements make way for new opportunities

Microsoft Fabric—the all-in-one analytics solution that covers everything from data movement to data science—has enabled the role of enterprise data analyst to evolve into that of analytics engineer. As a result, effective April 30, 2024, we’ll retire the Microsoft Certified: Azure Enterprise Data Analyst Associate certification and Exam DP-500: Designing and Implementing Enterprise-Scale Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI. Enterprise data analysts can now earn the Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate certification by passing Exam DP-600.

In other news, Microsoft Power Platform app makers have new opportunities to demonstrate skills in specific scenarios relevant to the work that they do every day, such as automating business processes with Power Automate and creating apps with Power Apps, with our new Applied Skills credentials. As a result, effective June 30, 2024, we’ll retire the Microsoft Certified: Power Platform App Maker Associate certification and Exam PL-100: Microsoft Power Platform App Maker.

Take charge of your career with Microsoft Credentials

You don’t have to choose between Microsoft Certification and Applied Skills. In fact, combining both types of Microsoft Credentials can help you maximize the potential to achieve your goals. For example, if you want to validate your skills for specific projects that you’re working on related to Microsoft Fabric, like implementing a data lakehouse, a data warehouse, or real-time analytics, or if you’re preparing for the exam, you can start by earning the Applied Skills that cover these topics that are coming soon.

Alternatively, after you’ve earned the certification, you can demonstrate that you have skills needed for specific projects related to Fabric by earning one of the related Applied Skills, when available.

If you’re trying to decide which type of credential suits your current needs, career goals, skill set, and experience, check out Choose your Microsoft Credential.

We hope that this Microsoft Credentials roundup has inspired you to continue your learning journey and to pursue credentials—whether Microsoft Certifications for broader validation of your ability to fill particular job roles or Applied Skills for scenario-based validation of your specific tech skills. In today’s ever-changing business environment, both can help you succeed in your chosen profession. These complementary credentials can help you take charge of your career and give you the tools you need to become indispensable.

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