Skip to main content

Microsoft Partner Employees

Microsoft Partner employee guide to linking your certification profile in Partner Center and accessing skilling resources, demo tenants, certification events. and other Microsoft Partner resources.

Table of contents

Associating your certification profile with your organization

Sign into your organizations Partner Center Account (yes, it is very slow to load, it isn’t a problem on your side) and under Your learning choose the Associate Microsoft Learning account.

New Microsoft Partner designations

You can find all the related information in the linked documentation.

The biggest change from the now ending competencies is that requirements require fewer certifications from single individuals and in benefits the Visual Studio Enterprise subscription will no longer have the monthly credits (it will be bulk credits for one subscription instead).

You need 70/100 points to achieve a Microsoft Partner designation. The areas are divided into different performance tiers and skilling. Below are the skilling requirements and how many total points can you gain from certifications.

Designation requirements by solution area

Total skilling points: 40/70 (Intermediate certifications only; Advanced certifications don’t apply to this area).

Data & AI Pathway RequirementsOfficial Partner Center documentation for Performance, Skilling, and Customer Success requirements.

Individual maximum: 4 points

  • Required certifications: 0 points (the Enterprise gate doesn’t award points)
  • Scored certification: 4 points

Required (mandatory, no points, before scored certifications count):

Scored (up to 4 points per person, max 40 points from 10 people):

Individual maximum: 12 points

Required (4 points flat per step, mandatory before scored certifications count):

Scored (4 points per person, max 40 points from 10 people):

Total skilling points: 40/70 (Intermediate certifications: 20 + Advanced certifications: 20).

Digital & App Innovation Pathway RequirementsOfficial Partner Center documentation for Performance, Skilling, and Customer Success requirements.

Individual maximum: 8 points

  • Intermediate required certification: 0 points
  • Intermediate scored certification: 4 points
  • Advanced required certification: 0 points
  • Advanced scored certification: 4 points

Intermediate certifications (max 20 points from 5 people)

Required (mandatory, no points):

Scored (4 points per person):

Advanced certifications (max 20 points from 5 people)

Required (mandatory, no points):

Scored (4 points per person):

Individual maximum: 16 points

  • Intermediate required certification: 4 points
  • Intermediate scored certification: 4 points
  • Advanced required certification: 4 points
  • Advanced scored certification: 4 points

Intermediate certifications (max 20 points from 5 people)

Required (4 points flat):

Scored (4 points per person):

Advanced certifications (max 20 points from 5 people)

Required (4 points flat):

Scored (4 points per person):

Total skilling points: 40/70 (Intermediate certifications: 20 + Advanced certifications: 20).

Infrastructure Pathway RequirementsOfficial Partner Center documentation for Performance, Skilling, and Customer Success requirements.

Individual maximum: 8 points

  • Intermediate required certification: 0 points
  • Intermediate scored certification: 4 points
  • Advanced required certification: 0 points
  • Advanced scored certification: 4 points

Intermediate certifications (max 20 points from 5 people)

Required (mandatory, no points):

Scored (4 points per person):

Advanced certifications (max 20 points from 5 people)

Required (mandatory, no points):

Scored (4 points per person):

Individual maximum: 16 points

  • Intermediate required certification: 4 points
  • Intermediate scored certification: 4 points
  • Advanced required certification: 4 points
  • Advanced scored certification: 4 points

Intermediate certifications (max 20 points from 5 people)

Required (4 points flat):

Scored (4 points per person):

Advanced certifications (max 20 points from 5 people)

Required (4 points flat):

Scored (4 points per person):

Total skilling points: 40/70 (Intermediate certifications only; Advanced certifications don’t apply to this area).

Security Pathway RequirementsOfficial Partner Center documentation for Performance, Skilling, and Customer Success requirements.

Individual maximum: 6.67 points

  • Required certifications: 0 points (the Enterprise gate doesn’t award points)
  • Scored certification: 6.67 points

Required (mandatory, no points, before scored certifications count):

Scored (6.67 points per person):

Individual maximum: 16 points

  • Azure/Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate (required): 4 points
  • Microsoft Security Operations Analyst (required): 4 points
  • Scored certification: 8 points

Required (4 points flat per step, mandatory before scored certifications count):

Scored (8 points per person):

Total skilling points: 35/70 (Intermediate certifications: 20 + Advanced certifications: 15).

Business Applications Pathway RequirementsOfficial Partner Center documentation for Performance, Skilling, and Customer Success requirements.

Individual maximum: 3.14 points (no mandatory prerequisites in this area)

  • Intermediate certification: 1 point
  • Advanced certification: 2.14 points

Intermediate certifications (1 point per person, max 20 points from 20 people):

Advanced certifications (2.14 points per person, max 15 points from 7 people):

  • Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Functional Consultant Expert (retired June 30, 2026; remains valid 1 year after retirement)
  • Dynamics 365: Finance and Operations Apps Solution Architect Expert (retired June 30, 2026; remains valid 1 year after retirement)
  • Power Platform Solution Architect Expert (retired June 30, 2026; remains valid 1 year after retirement)
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central Developer Associate
  • Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect

Individual maximum: 11.5 points (no mandatory prerequisites in this area)

  • Intermediate certification: 4 points
  • Advanced certification: 7.5 points

Intermediate certifications (4 points per person, max 20 points from 5 people):

Advanced certifications (7.5 points per person, max 15 points from 2 people):

  • Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Functional Consultant Expert (retired June 30, 2026; remains valid 1 year after retirement)
  • Dynamics 365: Finance and Operations Apps Solution Architect Expert (retired June 30, 2026; remains valid 1 year after retirement)
  • Power Platform Solution Architect Expert (retired June 30, 2026; remains valid 1 year after retirement)
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central Developer Associate
  • Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect

Total skilling points: 25/70 (Intermediate certifications: 10 + Advanced certifications: 15).

Modern Work Pathway RequirementsOfficial Partner Center documentation for Performance, Skilling, and Customer Success requirements.

Individual maximum: 10 points (no mandatory prerequisites in this area)

  • Intermediate certification: 2.5 points
  • Advanced certification: 7.5 points

Intermediate certifications (max 10 points from 4 people):

Advanced certifications (max 15 points from 2 people):

Individual maximum: 20 points (no mandatory prerequisites in this area)

  • Intermediate certification: 5 points
  • Advanced certification: 15 points

Intermediate certifications (max 10 points from 2 people):

Advanced certifications (max 15 points from 1 person):

Microsoft Techcommunity for Partners

These are the communication channels, where you can see 99% of any news or changes happening to everything. I recommend subscribing to the topics that interest you to stay up to date on all the cool stuff happening.

Microsoft Digital Experiences (CDX/MDX)

If you work for a Microsoft Partner, you are eligible to access MDX (if the Partner Organisation set it up). In CDX, you can setup M365 demo tenants, usually filled with content already. These tenants are renewable + you can have multiple active at the same time. There are all sorts of demos and showcases of Microsoft products. Great for any kind of testing or exam preparation.

1 Free M365 Tenant

Part of MDX allows you to create 1x 90 day non-renewable M365 tenant. There are multiple types like E5, Business Premium or various specialised tenants. Before creating another one, you need to delete the existing one.

MDX Experiences

Second part of MDX are Experiences. These have multiple variations, either they are live demonstrations where you use beforementioned tenant to explore/demostrate features live or simulated demonstrations. In simulated demonstrations you get access to a simulated tenant, where you can click around and explore it but it is premade and not a real environment so any updates and changes are not reflected unless it is specifically updated.

Microsoft Partner Skilling Hub

The new all in one resource for all Microsoft Partner related events and resources.

Microsoft Partner LevelUp

Microsoft’s new technical skilling platform for Microsoft Partners.

Microsoft Titan Skilling Academy

Microsoft’s new skilling platform for Microsoft Partners. There are 3 areas you can upskill in:

  • Sales Ready: customer-facing selling skills for specific solution areas, each with a set number of tasks and an estimated time to complete.
  • Tech Deal Ready: deal-support technical skills for specific solution areas, each with a set number of tasks and an estimated time to complete.
  • Project Ready: hands-on technical learning journeys, each with a set number of tasks and an estimated time to complete.
    • Frontier Transformation Engineer - build agentic AI apps using Microsoft’s full stack and integrate agentic AI into existing processes and apps. 22 tasks, ~93 hours.
    • Microsoft Sentinel - Unified SecOps - unified SecOps concepts, threat detection, investigation and response, SIEM/SOAR and security automation. 6 tasks, ~49 hours.
    • Data Security - securing data and AI workloads, governance and compliance controls, data protection configuration. 6 tasks, ~55 hours.
    • Identity Security - identity and access management, Zero Trust principles, privileged access management. 5 tasks, ~41 hours.

Microsoft Cloud Champions Program

Another Microsoft Partner resource. This one is region specific and collects everything happening in your region.

Microsoft Partner Certification Weeks

Certification Weeks are five-day, instructor-led live events run with regional training providers (Fast Lane for the Americas and EMEA, VEL for Japan, IKSS for Korea, and Dcclouds for China), built for developers, data engineers, security practitioners, and business applications specialists preparing for role-based Microsoft certifications. They offer:

  • Instructor-led training across multiple certification tracks (Security, Cloud + AI, and AI Business Solutions) run in parallel, in roughly two-hour session blocks per day over the first four days.
  • Instructor-led hands-on labs, delivered in partnership with Skillable, plus live Q&A with Microsoft experts.
  • A fifth day set aside for self-study exam prep.
  • A free Microsoft exam voucher for participants who score 80% or higher on their single practice-test attempt (one voucher per event, not per course), subject to Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program (MAICPP) domain eligibility and available voucher stock. Microsoft employees and vendor (v-dash) accounts are not eligible.

Sources

Associate Microsoft Certification profile ID (MCID) to a Microsoft Cloud Partner Program | Microsoft Learn