News
2006 MCT Program Reg Opens April 3
Registration for Microsoft's 2006 MCT program opens up Monday, April 3.
- By Michael Domingo
- March 30, 2006
Registration for Microsoft's 2006 MCT program opens up Monday, April 3. Member feedback precipitated the move to have the registration period moved from fall to spring, according to Ken Rosen, group manager of the MCT program in an e-mail inquiry.
"October is a bad time to launch a program," Rosen stated, adding that "it requires us to gear up our field and get our partner's attention during summer holidays and back-to-school. So we moved it to April, where the 90-day run-up is free and clear of distractions."
Besides an MCT certificate, wallet card, and online access to Microsoft Official Learning curriculum, Microsoft is offering several new benefits:
- Free access to E-Learning on the Microsoft E-Learning site (available worldwide).
- 50-percent off Microsoft Press books (North America, EMEA, Austrailia and New Zealand); must be ordered from local fulfillment.
- 20-percent off Microsoft TechNet Plus (offer is not available in China, India, Korea, Latin America or Taiwan).
- 50-percent off Visual Studio Professional+MSDN Premium Subscription (to qualify, MCT must have an MCPD or MCSD on .NET).
- MCT Season Pass, which is a reuseable MCP exam voucher that allows MCTs to take exams at up to 56-percent off retail (can be used on a maximum of 5 exams per voucher).
- Early invitations to MCP beta exam and Microsoft software beta programs.
The list of benefits are numerous and include Microsoft Learning Base Virtual Hard Disk DVDs, which contain the Virtual PC images required for Microsoft Learning, Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Business Solutions qualifiers for the MCT program; discount subscriptions; invitations to MCT-only events at Microsoft conferences; and access to community forums. Microsoft also points to an interesting feature, called Metrics that Matter, a best practices guide and reporting tool for measuring training customer satisfaction. See the MCT Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mct/ for a complete list of benefits.
About the Author
Michael Domingo has held several positions at 1105 Media, and is currently the editor in chief of Visual Studio Magazine.