How important is a Microsoft Certification for a Student?

Well, as a starter education is one of the most important aspects of your life. In this way, from elementary school to high school and college, your education will lay the foundation of who you will be as a professional.

Overall, this leads us to our point. As we live in a world driven by data and technology, developing IT skills is obviously a good idea. At the same time, as the demand for these types of skills is continuously growing, it is never too early to start preparing for the future. Altogether, this is a reason why students should opt for, or at least have the option to learn about development and programming. For this reason, we are going to dedicate this entire article to the “Importance of Microsoft Certifications for a student”.

Here is an overview of the covered topics:

• About Microsoft Certifications
• IT skills that are high in demand
• Investing in your education is investing in your future
• The importance of being a learn-it all
• How are Microsoft Certifications related to Job Opportunities?
• What are my options?
• Microsoft Learn for students and educators
• Finally: Importance of a Microsoft Certification for a Student

About Microsoft Certifications

In the first place, Microsoft has multiple Certification Paths. In this way, these paths are focused on four Microsoft products. Which are:

• Azure
• Dynamics 365
• Microsoft 365
• Power Platform

Moreover, there are three types of certifications: roled-based, fundamentals, and specialty.

To begin, let’s take a look at roled-based certifications!

Role-Based Microsoft Certifications

These certifications help you expand your skills and demonstrate your expertise. In like manner, roled-based certifications are entirely targeted towards a more knowledgeable or experienced audience. However, that doesn’t mean a student can’t opt for this path. There are several Certifications in it. In fact, most of Microsoft’s Certifications are in this category. You can take a look at them here.

Microsoft Specialty Certifications

Secondly, there are Specialty Certifications. For this ones, there are only two certifications, which are

• Microsoft Certified: Azure for SAP Workloads Specialty
• Microsoft Certified: Azure IoT Developer Specialty

These types of certifications are targeted at professionals. More specifically professionals looking to deepen their skill set in order to manage Industry Solutions. And, last but not least! There are Fundamentals Certifications.

Microsoft Fundamentals Certifications

Fundamentals Certifications are a great option for students that want to learn the basics of Microsoft skills. Particularly for those who want to make a career with Microsoft products. Additionally, is important to point out that the only Certification in this category that is going to be retired this year is the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fundamentals.  In this way, this Certification is available but only until June 30, 2021. As can be seen, there are multiple options for all kinds of levels. Therefore, you can choose one that fits your preferences to start building your career from there.

Now, moving forward let us take a look at the most in-demand IT skills.

In-demand IT skills 

In the first place, IT skills are always in demand. If you take a look closer you will see that most businesses -if not all- are looking for ways to improve their processes, reduce costs, and overall, reach their goals. This is one of the reasons why we see more businesses implementing CRM and ERP Platforms like Microsoft Dynamics 365 for example. In this way, these kinds of platforms are commonly used to manage these processes in a more efficient way. As a consequence of that, companies are always looking to upskill their employees in order to be able to upgrade their processes.

This is why at this point, being able to understand and use Microsoft’s multiple platforms efficiently is definitely a valuable skill in the market. Why is that? Well, as a matter of fact, companies want to hire the best candidates. For instance, they need qualified employees that are able to get the job done without major troubles. Moreover, when it comes to Microsoft products, the Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations skillset is one the most in-demand assets in candidates. Given the fact that with these kinds of skills, their value as professionals increases exponentially. Additionally, these are some skills in demand in the IT industry.

And, just like any other skill, these require a lot of effort and also take a lot of time to build. However, prepared students are able to learn and adapt to these platforms if they count on the right preparation from the beginning. As students, this will give them lots of opportunities to start building a strong skill set. Consequently, they will be more valuable as professionals once they enter the job market. After all, certified students increase their chances of getting hired faster. Now, moving forward! Another important aspect is for students to realize the impact of their education. So, let’s get into that.

Investing in your education is investing in your future

As a starter, what you do today can improve all your tomorrows. In this way, it is important for students to make the right decisions and invest in their education when they can. After all, that will determine who they will be as professionals. And, we are talking about education as a long-term investment; so, as long as they have learned something, they will be rewarded in some way or another.

Certainly, a certification can help you demonstrate how valuable you are as a professional. This is why is important for students that are just beginning to build their careers to focus on their education overall.With this in mind, we can conclude that currently, the best financial decision students can make is to invest in their own education.

In summary, Getting certified means that you have a certain level of practical experience in any matter related to your industry. This marks you as someone productive and proficient.

The importance of being a “learn-it-all.”

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella often refers to the importance of being a “learn-it all” instead of a “know-it-all.” In this sense, students need to prepare for the future and build skills. Consequently, this will help them succeed in any path they choose. In other words, being curious and constantly loading yourself with more knowledge is important for your career and personal growth. After all, education and determination are fundamental to help you confront all the constant challenges that you can find out there.

How are Certificates related to Job Opportunities? 

Now it’s time to talk about something very interesting… Job opportunities!

You spend years studying or preparing yourself to finally land your dream job, right? But, getting hired can be a bit tough. Especially when you are starting your career. In these cases, when it comes to getting hired, a certification can help you throughout this process. There are a lot of things people consider before hiring an employee. As a student, it is best to become certified first. For instance, people feel more confident about a candidate if they have credentials that validate their hard skills.

Long story short, you can achieve that with a Microsoft Certification. Besides showing how prepared you are at a technical level, a certification also suggests how determined and focused you are about following the respective career path. This recognition accelerates your process and saves you a lot of time in building up a background experience.

Why Should Students opt for a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Certification?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is one of the most useful business tools out there. Basically, it is a platform used to manage business operations. Therefore we highly recommend learning about it. First of all, it is a great advantage to be able to demonstrate your skills, especially if Microsoft is the one validating your experience. Secondly, with a certification, you can improve your ability to perform certain tasks. Also, it helps you to deal with different situations in an effective way. In other words, a certification will prepare you for your future.

Long story short, by getting a certification, students will be able to build skills for the future. Therefore they increase their opportunities to get better jobs while also increasing their experience.

What are my options? 

When it comes to deciding what path to take, there are several options out there. In the long run, this will depend on your preferences. For starters, let’s talk about options! Firstly, and probably one of the most demanded certifications is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Apps Solution Associate. In brief, this role consists of understanding business practices, software capabilities, and implementation delivery. You can earn this certification by following the Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations and Supply Chain Management platform. If you are new in this area, you have the option to take the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fundamentals exam and get a Fundamentals level certificate (But remember that this option is viable only until June 30, 2021). Secondly, there are multiple paths to consider so, let’s take a better look!

Microsoft Paths you can opt for as a student

Besides Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations and Supply Chain Management, you will find multiple paths that will lead you to different certifications. For example, if you are interested in designing, building, testing, and maintaining solutions, then you might want to go through the Developer path. However, if you want to work on Microsoft solutions related to computing, storage, network, and security, you may want to be an Administrator. Also, there is the Data Scientist’s role. This role is mostly for people that solve business problems through machine learning models.

On the other hand, Data Engineers focus on designing and implementing the management, monitoring, security, and privacy of data. If you are interested in artificial intelligence, then the AI Engineer role might be a great option for you. You will need to learn how to use Cognitive Services, Machine Learning, and Knowledge Mining to architect and implement Microsoft AI solutions. Think about your aspirations and preferences, because there is probably an opportunity that suits you the best.

Note: If you want to start your developer training, you can start by taking our Dynamics 365 MB-500 and MB-300 courses.

Microsoft Learn for students and Educators

Microsoft Learn has Microsoft Learn for students. An entire home page dedicated to students that, as they say, want to “build tech skills for the future.” This learning platform includes several learning paths inspired by different thematics like Space Jam, Wonder Woman, or Netflix: Over the Moon. Learn Python Basics with Wonder Woman? Sure, that sounds like fun! Microsoft addresses the importance of Certification for students. This is why they invest so much into this cause. Students even get Certification Discounts once they verify their academic status.

Finally, How important is a Microsoft Certification for a Student?

At this point, as we already covered, there are a lot of options to choose from when it comes to getting certified. You have several paths and certifications to choose from. They all provide their own challenges and focus on different scenarios and solutions. Take your time and think about what drives you more. After this decision, the second-most important decision you would be making is how you get trained. At Instructor Brandon, we have several training courses that can help you begin your journey from day one. From C# for beginners to Introduction to TSQL, there are many options to choose from if you want to start building your career. Excellence comes with great effort and dedication.

In addition, we sincerely hope that you enjoyed this article. In short, we aim to provide quality at all times. Moreover, if you need to reach me, you know how to get in touch by reaching out to me here. – Brandon Ahmad, founder of Instructor Brandon and Dynatuners.

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