MCT Regional Lead

September 28, 2012 Leave a comment

Today a new program was announced by Microsoft Learning.  The MCT Regional Leads will be a liaison between the Microsoft Certified Trainers in their region and MSL.  a call for applications went out in August, and the Leads were announced today.  Melissa Bathum and Veronica Sopher asked me to record a short video for the conference call.  Unfortunately that video was corrupted in transit, so they asked me to post the text of that video.  I am not editing the original text, what you are reading is the original text as I intended to deliver it to the call today.

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Hi. My name is Mitch Garvis, and I am the MCT Regional Lead for Eastern Canada. I am a trainer and IT Pro consultant with SWMI Consulting Group, as well as a Virtual Technical Evangelist with Microsoft Canada.

When I first heard about the role of Regional Lead I tried to imagine what the needs and requests of a typical MCT in Canada would be. After a great deal of trying I came to the conclusion that you cannot generalize; an MCT in Halifax could not have the same type of career as one in Calgary, Montreal, or Toronto, or in any of the other cities across this great land.

In the same way that the career of MCTs could vary greatly across geography, so too were they likely to differ across technical areas of specialization and many other factors. I decided that if any one MCT truly wanted to represent the entirety of the MCT community across the country he would best be served by creating a national council consisting of trainers from different regions, from different technical specialties. It is the only way that I felt that any one person could truly represent the needs of an entire nation and do so equitably.

As the Regional Lead for Canada it is my intent to create such a council; I am fortunate that I have the opportunity to visit different regions across the country, and will try to meet with as many of my fellow MCTs as I can, and will choose one or two from different regions. This is not to say that any MCT cannot reach out to me, for if it is my goal to represent their voice to Microsoft Learning, I must be willing to listen to everyone. I hope that my fellow trainers will be comfortable enough to reach out to me and discuss any issues that they feel are important to them.

Just as Alberta is different from Ontario, Canada will be different from Ireland; the model that I plan to follow for Canada will not necessarily be right for other lands, and I expect that each Regional Lead will have to give a lot of thought to how their region can best be served. What we will all have in common though is a desire to represent our communities fairly and proudly.

I am honoured to have been selected from the many qualified candidates, and will do my best to deserve this honour by listening to my fellow trainers from across this great land, and representing their opinions and positions truly to Microsoft Learning throughout the year. I am excited for this opportunity and challenge, and know that in order to succeed I must know and listen to my peers, for this position is not for myself but for them, and thus my duty is ultimately to them.

On behalf of the Canadian MCT community I want to wish my fellow inaugural class of MCT Regional Leads the best of luck and success. As Microsoft Learning celebrates its 20th year we have heard loud and clear from our fellows that there are many things that they are doing right, and there are likewise things that can be improved upon. I hope that our communal goal is to achieve that – to improve the system for us all – for the trainers, for Microsoft, and for our students.

I look forward to working with you all to make that a reality.

Filed under MCT, Microsoft Canada, Microsoft Certified Trainer, Microsoft Learning

Are you a Microsoft Certified Professional?

August 3, 2012 Leave a comment

Microsoft Certified Professional

The MCP logo (since 2002)

As we celebrate twenty years of Microsoft Learning, it is amazing to see some of the changes that the certification program has gone through.  I remember the first day I was ever able to call myself a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP).  It was March 31, 2003, and I was ecstatic!

When Microsoft Learning unveiled the new (now old) certifications model in 2006 the MCP was supposed to be retired.  Not the program itself, but the actual cert.  We would still log into mcp.microsoft.com/mcp to access our accounts, but if you passed any of the new exams you would now be an MCTS or an MCITP, but not an MCP.

I sat down with Erica Cravens of Microsoft Learning recently and she explained to me that with the newest iteration of Microsoft certifications, the MCP designation is back.  If you pass an exam from Microsoft Learning, you will earn the MCP credential, as well as the right to use that logo.

Speaking of logos, I am holding out hope that there is a new logo in our future… maybe as an anniversary present next year marking 10 years as an MCP for me Smile

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Filed under MCP, Microsoft Certified Trainer, Microsoft Learning Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Renewing my MCT

April 26, 2012 4 Comments

According to my MS Learning Transcript I became a Microsoft Certified Trainer in July of 2006.  Unlike professional certifications, the MCT credential has to be renewed on a yearly basis, and on March 15th this year I renewed again.  It is actually fairly simple, as long as you haven’t done anything to mess it up.  You have to pay USD$400, but aside from that it is painless.

Four Hundred Dollars is not chicken feed… it’s a lot of money to pay to Microsoft every year, and I have had several friends and colleagues ask me if it is worth paying year after year.  The answer is unequivocally YES.

imageI am thinking about it now because in this morning’s MCT Flash newsletter there was a reminder that current MCTs have only three more days to renew their status.  I have never let mine lapse, but I do remember the paperwork and hassles that were involved in getting the credential the first time, and I do not want to go through it again.  I have spoken with a couple of MCTs who over the years have forgotten and let it lapse, and getting that corrected is never simple.

There was a time when I coveted my MCT above all of my other certifications, although I suppose that is no longer the case; it is not that I value my MCT any less now, but I have a lot of other certifications that I feel better demonstrate my technical knowledge, whereas the MCT really demonstrates my presentation abilities.

With that being said, unless my career takes a very unexpected turn, I will not let my MCT lapse… ever.  It means more than knowledge, it means that if I ever find myself between consulting gigs, rather than sitting dejected at home I can take a contract training at a CPLS… if I want.  It means that if I want to learn the latest technology I can go to the MCT Download Site and download the course and do it on my own.  It means that I have an inside contact to speak with at Microsoft Learning, and it means that people at Microsoft are more willing to listen to my concerns.

At an event I was at recently I overheard a colleague speaking with a mutual acquaintance and encouraging them to become an MCT.  I thought this was a terrible idea, and I told him (my colleague) so.  It is not because it is not a great credential; it was because I knew the person in question, and do not think they are worthy of it.  They do not have the confidence or speaking and presentation skills, not to speak of technical acumen.  If this sounds harsh, it is this simple: when people who do not deserve the credential are given it, they lower the bar for the rest of us, and thus lessens the credibility of the credential to others who may then see ‘Oh, if So-and-so earned it, maybe it’s not as hard as it once was.

There are a lot of loopholes that would let people become MCTs if they knew about them.  I even know of a few who have done so.  I never help anyone with these, because I have sat through too many classes (and heard horror stories from others who have done the same) with MCTs who had trouble stringing sentences together, or had no understanding of the importance of not only knowing the subject matter, but of making it interesting and engaging the students.

So with regard to the acquaintance who I do not feel should be an MCT, my recommendation is to start going to Toast Masters, get a lot of public speaking experience, and work hard on the technical side.  However if you are not comfortable speaking to large (or small) audiences… until that changes, you just shouldn’t be an MCT.

Good luck, and welcome back to all of the renewed Trainers!

Filed under MCT, Microsoft Certified Trainer, Microsoft Learning

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