FIRST EVER Microsoft Applied Skill RETIRED with NO NOTICE At All!

Video Summary

Here are the key points from the video:

• Microsoft retired its first applied skill, “Deploy Containers by Using Azure Kubernetes Service,” on June 16, 2024.
• Applied skills were introduced about a year ago as free, hands-on, product-focused credentials. Over 25 have been released, with more coming soon.
• Learning partners were notified of the retirement on June 17, 2024, and the public on June 27, 2024, through a brief mention in a larger post.
• Unlike certifications, which usually come with a few months’ notice, this applied skill was retired without any prior warning.
• The video questions whether Microsoft should provide a minimum notice period for retiring applied skills, despite them being free and subject to retirement at any time without notice.

For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!

Video Transcript

Microsoft recently retired its first applied skill, “Deploy Containers by Using Azure Kubernetes Service.” In this video, I want to cover something really interesting about how this applied skill was retired. Let me start with a bit of history. About a year ago, Microsoft announced applied skills, a different way to get a Microsoft credential that is more product-focused, hands-on, and importantly, a free offering. Since then, Microsoft has released over 25 different applied skills, with a dozen more in the pipeline, about which we will hear more soon. While Microsoft has been retiring certifications by the dozen in recent months, we are getting a ton of new applied skills. Microsoft has been ramping up on adding applied skills to their portfolio, but less than a year after being launched, we just had the first retirement, giving us a glimpse into how Microsoft manages the process for applied skills.

The first applied skill to retire is “Deploy Containers by Using Azure Kubernetes Service,” one of the original applied skills from when Microsoft initially announced them. The retirement timeline is as follows: the applied skill retired on June 16, 2024. Learning partners were notified about the retirement on June 17, 2024, a day after the retirement was already done. The public was only notified on the Tech Community on June 27, 2024, 11 days after the retirement. It wasn’t a big announcement or a dedicated blog post; it was just a paragraph part of a bigger post that simply said this applied skill is being retired and to stay tuned for new topics in the future.

Now, my question for you is: I know that applied skills are free, but is it okay for Microsoft to retire them without advanced notice? For certifications, Microsoft usually gives us a few months’ notice, but it seems that for applied skills, they just retire them without giving any notice. Don’t get me wrong, Microsoft reserves the right to retire exams, certifications, and applied skills or any type of credential at any time without notice, as part of the terms and conditions we accept every time we do one of them. But should Microsoft give us a minimum amount of notice even for the free applied skills? What do you think? Let me know in the comments below, and make sure you like the video and subscribe to the channel. This way, you get notified whenever Microsoft announces a brand new credential or retires one.