You’re Ready for MCT Certification. You have been a Microsoft Certified Professional for several years. You are making a good living. You enjoy your work and the status it has provided.  Maybe you are just starting out. You went to one of the technology schools that promised you a career where the pay starts at $50,000 to $60,000. Your decision to attend such a school was largely since you could get financing through Pell grants and title iv funding.

Let’s begin with the later IT professional first. You are newly certified with a combination of vendor certifications. You have lower-level CompTIA and Microsoft certifications, and you are quickly finding out the job market is not what you believed.  You need to get employed quickly as the student loans are now coming in and payment is due.  You are really stuck. You spent $20,000 for lower-level certifications that do not give you an advantage in the workforce. Here’s the solution to escape your dilemma. You could just suffer for a few years with the $40,000 helpdesk job you landed, or you could continue to seek better pay for the skills you obtained. You can think about upgrading your Microsoft Fundamentals certification to a Microsoft associate level which qualifies you to become a Microsoft Certified Trainer. This certainly provides you with more career flexibility, better pay and access to Microsoft products and technologies to accelerate your skills. We will explore this in greater detail later.

The first Microsoft Certified Professional has a much simpler path. He/She still must consider what is going on in the market. As an example, we have recently witnessed several major IT firms like Facebook, Twitter and others announce large layoffs. These announcements will affect thousands of workers and their families. Though we are not there yet, we may be headed for a softer landing than the 2009 tech meltdown, but a disruption in the market is coming. We have time and again the seasoned IT professionals never believe they will be among those that would be affected by market disruptions. We have sounded the warning before, we witnessed and understand firsthand what happens in disruptive markets. During the 2009 meltdown, we saw firsthand IT trainers that commanded $1,600 a day for high level courses get pushed down below $1,000 a day. Here was the one big advantage they enjoyed over other IT Professionals; they were never unemployed. Microsoft Certified Trainers unemployment rates have remained below 5% for decades.

If you are looking to break into IT or you’re a seasoned professional becoming a Microsoft Certified Trainer is a solid path to career freedom and hedging against market disruptions.

How to get more out of your certification

We are no longer surprised by the number of Microsoft Certified Professionals that know little about what the MCT Program is, the benefits of MCT certification or how to leverage their existing certification to become a member of this exclusive membership-based club. Microsoft Certified Trainers are certified and authorized by Microsoft as the sole authority to deliver content from Microsoft’s Official Curriculum (MOC) courseware. Microsoft Certified Trainers because of this certification and authorization have access to the complete library of Microsoft Products and Technologies, they have access to all Microsoft (MOC) online labs. Microsoft Certified Trainers get deep discounts on books and exams. They can enroll in the Microsoft Beta exam program and the Microsoft Azure Pass Program. This helps to develop your skills and work with and provide feedback on Microsoft products before they are in the public market.

Microsoft Certified Trainers are holders of perhaps Microsoft most prestigious certification and have their own job portal. This unique job portal is exclusive to Microsoft Certified Trainers. Career opportunities, upcoming training needs and in-house trainer jobs are typically posted here first. Members of this club have the first opportunity to seek career or skills matching before these opportunities are farmed out to IT staffing firms or job boards. Microsoft Certified Trainers have access to a regional MCT lead, which helps them to further develop their training skills and for questions they may have. As a Microsoft Certified Trainer, it is important to continue to sharpen your skills after your certification. To this end Microsoft Certified Trainers have access to a full range of Microsoft Trainer kits. These kits are strictly for the development of Microsoft Certified Trainers and are not for student consumption. Microsoft Trainer skills contain all the slides associated with the course you are delivering. As well as instructor notes to help you emphasize important topics and having work arounds to any lab issues.

Microsoft Certified Trainers earned an average of $136,931 as of August data. This reflects an increase of nearly 16% over the 2021 salary of $116,657 for in-house trainers. This is for employee-based trainers. Microsoft Certified Trainers that freelance earn much more than in-house trainers. There are several reasons for this. Freelancers’ rates can be determined by the course type, the difficulty of the course, the length of the course and the number of participants. They will also add in travel, hotel, meals, and rental car rates.  Microsoft Certified Trainers that freelance can build their own practice and can select which organizations they want to work with. These organizations include Microsoft Education Learning Partners, for profit and nonprofit corporations both large and small.

There’s plenty of opportunities for Microsoft Certified Trainers. There are currently less than 20,000 MCT’s worldwide. Though this is a global certification with international recognition many IT professionals are not aware of the power of this certification or how to go about securing the certification. When you contrast the number of Microsoft Certified Trainers to the millions of IT professionals that hold Microsoft Certification overall, the MCT certification is a no brainer.

The route to MCT Certification

Becoming a Microsoft Certified Trainer is not as difficult as many have been led to believe, but the requirements are stringent.  First, let’s dispel all the things that you may have heard that makes you think it is a certification that is out of your grasp.  

You do not need to have previous training experience to become a Microsoft Certified Trainer. You do not need to have years of technical experience to become a Microsoft Certified Trainer. You do not need a recommendation from an existing MCT. You do not nor can you use an employer recommendation letter to become a Microsoft Certified Trainer.

The requirements to become a Microsoft Certified Trainer are straight forward.

• You must possess a qualifying Microsoft Certification
• You must attend a Microsoft Instructional Skills course through an approved Microsoft provider.

For a complete list of qualifying Microsoft certifications/ exams you can visit Microsoft’s website or by visiting Fourth Dimension Technologies, Inc.

Locate a provider

To become a Microsoft Certified Trainer, you must attend a Microsoft Instructional Skills course from a Microsoft approved provider. NO EXCEPTIONS. Over the years we have heard of and witnessed MCT candidates that have taken instructional skills courses from non-approved providers. Microsoft Instructional Skills is a specialized skill. There are only nine (9) or ten (10) companies that are approved providers. This list is maintained by Microsoft and is available on their website. You can simply do a google search by typing in how to become an MCT.

If a provider is not listed on the Microsoft website we caution you not to proceed with the course being offered. Some have been told that a provider of instructional skills has a special relationship with Microsoft.  Others believe that a Microsoft Education Learning Partner is automatically approved by Microsoft to provide instructional skills certifications of completion. This is incorrect. Not all Microsoft Education Learning Partners are approved to provide instructional skills. As a matter of fact, few are. You may also run into the difficulty of locating a approved provider in your area. This leads to additional costs such as travel, accommodations, and meals. Some approved providers deliver instructional skills via live instructor led virtual online courses. Only one provides a Self-Paced course that you can complete in your own time. A final exam is required to have your certificate of completion issued.  Keep in mind that many approved providers of Microsoft Instructional Skills certification only support their local region. To determine if the provider serves the global community check their website or contact them directly with any questions.

Best wishes in your quest to become a Microsoft Certified Trainer.