The stakes of skilling have never been higher, as 2024 revealed a striking trend: 71% of employees now seek more frequent skill updates, and 80% are calling on their organizations to prioritize upskilling and reskilling investments, according to TalentLMS. Developing cutting-edge skills isn’t just a priority; it’s a competitive necessity. Microsoft partners can turn this willingness to learn into an opportunity to drive innovation and growth.
We know organizations and individuals are particularly interested in sharpening their AI skills and security knowledge, as well as enhancing decision-making. That’s why the most popular skilling topics in 2024 were AI and machine learning, cybersecurity, and data literacy and analytics. Companies sought to meet skilling demand with increased investments in training programs, bootcamps, immersive experiences, and self-guided learning to better prepare for customer demand in these areas.
In 2025, we anticipate that skilling trends will continue to build upon the growing demand for innovative skills, and individuals and organizations will be particularly interested in self-guided learning, bite-sized and stackable certifications, industry-specific training, and the topic of career resilience.
Microsoft provides our partners with tools and opportunities to help your organization thrive in 2025. We host skilling events around the world, such as bootcamps and workshops, as well as self-guided learning opportunities to develop sales and technical skills in the areas most critical to your organization. Our skilling offerings include:
Build expertise with Partner Project Ready Workshops
Your organization’s developers, solution architects, and data scientists can prepare for real customer needs with our Partner Project Ready Workshops. They can register for the Microsoft Azure, Business Applications, Modern Work, or Microsoft Security Project Ready Workshops to build their design and deployment capabilities and prepare for real-world customer scenarios. These multiday skilling events help deepen the expertise needed to assess customer needs and seamlessly implement Azure solutions.
Register today to build the skills that will help you become project-ready faster:
Meet skilling requirements faster with Certification Weeks
Build your AI and cloud skills and accelerate your path to certification with advanced, role-based Certification Week events. For beginner and intermediate learners, Certification Weeks offer expert-led training that helps you master the intricacies of Azure AI. Participation in Certification Weeks also helps organizations meet Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program skilling requirements.
Organizations with Microsoft Certified Individuals are qualified to offer specialized services, which helps distinguish them from competitors and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty—while unlocking further opportunities and incentives from Microsoft.
Certification Weeks occur around the globe and throughout the year. Register today to enhance your technical capabilities:
Sharpen your strategy with Sales and Pre-Sales Skilling Bootcamps
Plan, build, and assess strategies for building sales opportunities and stand out in an increasingly competitive market with our Sales and Pre-Sales Skilling Bootcamps. You'll learn how to articulate the value of your organization's solutions and services, expand your strategies, and accelerate the customer journey.
These skilling events cover a wide range of topics, from fostering outcome-based conversations and complex concepts to developing industry expertise and tapping into market research to build more robust business opportunities. And you can upskill in the way that fits your business: bootcamps are available on demand, live, and as hybrid learning modules.
Join a bootcamp today to tap into decades of Microsoft experience:
Explore our in-person technical workshops
Our in-person regional partner skilling workshops are meticulously crafted for the AI era. These hands-on workshops provide the essential skills required in today's dynamic landscape and cover key solution areas, including:
- Copilot
- Build and extend Copilots to improve business productivity
- Fabric
- Empowering business growth: modernizing data and analytics with Microsoft Fabric in the AI era
- Build and extend your own agents using pro-code capabilities
- Security
- Fortify your data security with Microsoft Purview
- AI-powered threat protection with Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Security Copilot
- Azure
- Migrate to Innovate
- Technical workshop implementing Azure VMware solutions
Continue to check the links below for new, exclusive workshops coming to a city near you:
Get hands-on experience with Microsoft AI Partner Training Days
Learn about real-world AI deployments, get hands-on experience with Microsoft AI, explore tools that expand your AI practice, and discuss best practices for selling. AI Partner Training Days also offer networking opportunities, with the chance to discuss learnings with Microsoft experts.
Training Days are hosted throughout the year in locations around the world, with new locations announced periodically. View the full list, including events in your region, and learn how we can support you and your team.
Grow your AI capabilities with our Industry AI Envisioning series
Join one of the Business and Capability Envisioning Webinars to explore AI’s impact on your industry and discover how to harness it to drive more business value and better customer experiences. You’ll gain insights from industry-specific use case examples, learn how to strategically solve business problems using an envisioning framework, and better understand how to recognize AI-driven solution opportunities for your customers and organization.
Register for an upcoming webinar for your industry:
Drive success with Microsoft skilling
From one-day, asynchronous training at your own pace to live, multiday workshops, Microsoft has built comprehensive offerings for learners across industries, all available through the AI Cloud Partner Program. Access our training and certification resources today to enhance your capabilities, develop new expertise, and meet changing customer demand.