Partners are moving fast this year. New workloads. New buyer expectations. More roles involved in every AI deal and delivery. The common friction point isn’t motivation. It’s navigation.
March’s skilling update focuses on simplifying how you discover the right learning and progress through it with confidence. Our model is simple: discover the right pathway, then build capability through role-aligned learning, labs, and readiness experiences.
This month, the Microsoft Partner Skilling Catalog is the discovery layer. LevelUp is where you go deeper with on-demand learning that supports certification prep, Project Ready execution, and pathways focused on small and medium-sized business (SMB) opportunities. Together, they create a connected skilling ecosystem designed to accelerate readiness across sales, presales, and technical roles.
Discover the Partner Skilling Catalog
If you’re trying to skill across multiple roles or solution areas, the hardest part is often the starting point. The Partner Skilling Catalog is designed to remove that complexity by giving you a structured way to find the right learning based on:
- Solution area and priority workloads
- Level
- Role (Technical, Presales, Sales)
- Course type (Project Ready, Tech Deal Ready, Sales Ready) to guide progression
- An SMB-focused view aligned to priority workloads
The key mindset shift is this: treat the catalog as a roadmap, not a course list. Use it to decide what matters for your team this quarter, then route employees to the right learning path based on role and readiness.
Build capability in LevelUp: Certification prep plus role-based learning
Once you have the right pathway, LevelUp is where you build capability through on-demand learning experiences. LevelUp includes role-based courses, hands-on labs, and learning journeys so teams can skill consistently across solution areas.
For partners prioritizing Microsoft credentials, LevelUp also offers on-demand certification prep. The course catalog includes exam prep resources, practice tests, and labs. You can also earn a free exam voucher by completing a course and scoring 80% or higher on the practice test (terms apply).
Use certification prep as a practical milestone, not the finish line. Credentials validate knowledge and can increase confidence in customer conversations, especially when paired with Project Ready execution and repeatable delivery motions.
Extend capability: Project Ready and SMB pathways
After discovery and foundational learning, the next step is delivery readiness. Project Ready and SMB pathways are designed to move teams from “I understand it” to “I can implement it,” aligned to real workloads and customer scenarios.
This month, be sure to reinforce these two motions:
- Project Ready: Focus on delivery readiness for priority solution areas, using role-aligned content and practical guidance to support consistent implementation.
- SMB pathways: Build capability for SMB opportunities with skilling that maps to common SMB workloads and constraints, from productivity to security to cloud modernization.
The readiness tags (Project Ready, Tech Deal Ready, Sales Ready) matter here. They create a shared language across roles so sellers, presales, and technical teams can coordinate on what “ready” means and what to do next.
Featured learning and upcoming events
Frontier Transformation course
Frontier Transformation is the shift from isolated AI experiments to enterprise-wide, agent-powered workflows that deliver measurable outcomes. This course introduces frameworks and organizational capabilities needed to scale AI responsibly, including Work IQ, ubiquitous innovation, and observability across layers.
Use this course when you want to align teams on the why behind your AI motion, then connect it to role-specific execution in LevelUp and Project Ready.
Skills2Win: Driving more deals in a Presales role
Presales Cloud Week is part of the Skills2Win initiative. It’s designed to help partners turn AI conversations into sales opportunities through case studies and practical scenarios.
Review the sessions and times below:
- Tuesday, April 7, 9:00 AM – Friday, April 10, 1:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time
- Tuesday, May 5, 8:00 AM – Friday, May 8, 12:00 PM India Standard Time
- Tuesday, May 5, 9:00 AM – Friday, May 8, 1:00 PM British Summer Time
Microsoft Azure Summit: Migrate & Modernize with Agentic AI | On-demand
Discover why now is the pivotal moment to lead your customers’ cloud transformation, as well as how agentic innovation can accelerate migration momentum and modernization outcomes. In this on-demand session, you’ll get practical guidance from Microsoft experts on how Azure Copilot and next-gen agents are reshaping the migration landscape to make delivery faster, scaling easier, and your Azure practice more rewarding to grow.
You’ll also hear what GitHub’s agentic capabilities can unlock, as well as learn about skilling resources and technical readiness programs designed to reduce risk and equip your teams to land high-impact customer outcomes from day one. Watch the on-demand recording.
The structured progression: Discover, then build capability
To operationalize skilling across your organization this month, use the following model:
- Discover the right pathway in the Partner Skilling Catalog.
- Build capability in LevelUp through role-based learning and certification prep.
- Extend readiness through Project Ready and SMB pathways.
- Activate learning through aligned workshops, like the Frontier Transformation course, and live events, like Presales Cloud Week.
That’s the connected skilling ecosystem we’re building. Less searching, more progression. Greater consistency across roles. Faster readiness that shows up in pipeline, delivery confidence, and customer outcomes.
Begin your journey today, from discovery to building capability. Explore partner news on Microsoft Partner Community for fresh insights on programs, incentives, skilling, case studies, Copilot, marketplace growth, and more.