On Wednesday at the Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft Corp. announced the Microsoft Professional Degree (MPD) program, the first program of its kind to offer employer-endorsed, university-caliber curriculum for professionals at any stage of their career. MPD is a Microsoft-led initiative that provides professionals with real-world knowledge and hands-on experience to grow their skills in critical fields. The initial MPD offering is in data science, with all courseware available on
edX.org, the nonprofit online learning destination founded by Harvard University and MIT.
“The proliferation of cloud technologies and the delivery of software as a service has opened up tremendous revenue opportunities for our partners,” said Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president and chief evangelist, Developer Experience and Evangelism Group, Microsoft. “The Microsoft Professional Degree will be offered via edX, as well as through learning-as-a-service offerings delivered through partners, to meet customers’ evolving training needs and to help close the skills gap we are seeing across a number of industries.”
A significant skills gap exists in the data science field. In response to this growing need, Microsoft designed its pilot curriculum to deliver the critical skills and experiences that are required for success in the data science field. Since May 2016, over 200 pioneering partner and 650 Microsoft employees have been participating in a closed preview to evaluate and validate this new data science curriculum.
