The Biz Apps Classroom welcomes its first guest on this episode, Microsoft MVP and partner executive Vlad Sarov joins us to talk about the work he, podcast co-host Julie Yack, and others have been doing on a project to bring Microsoft Business Applications skills to adults in Ukraine through an ongoing series of training cohorts. The program follows Microsoft's prescribed Business Application professional skilling collection, but the team have taken the extra effort to translate the learning materials, adapt the guidance to allow for online interaction, and develop automated translation capabilities to allow trainers who don't speak Ukrainian to still help educate the students.

 

Vlad and Julie share the program's history, the team effort that was required to launch it and keep it running, the outcomes for graduates, and how they hope to expand the training to more cohorts in Ukraine and perhaps in other parts of the world.

 

Show Notes:

• 1:30 - Vlad's impressions of last year's MVP Summit
• 3:45 - Hatching a plan to create learning cohorts in Ukraine
• 6:45 - Translation technology that enables a multi-language program
• 9:30 - Why a program from Microsoft offered a good starting point for translation and adapting to a Ukrainian cohort
• 12:30 - Stories of some of the students
• 14:30 - The typical student experience each week
• 18:15 - Signups available for spring and summery 2024 cohorts - how to get accepted, what is expected of students, and how the trainers adapt to student needs like difficult circumstances
• 23:00 - Hiring people who complete these training cohorts - what Microsoft partners can do to help
• 26:30 - Industries that the students are coming from, and why industry knowledge helps
• 28:00 - How students are learning about the program and gaining the trust to join it
• 31:00 - What's next for this training approach - reaching more translations and languages

 

Links & Resources:

• Ukraine training signup:  https://365l.ink/UkraineSignUp
• Feedback and testimonials of students:  https://www.bap-ua.sarov.plus/
• Contact Vlad: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/vladsarov
• For more information about learning course, contact Dima Kudin
• Telegram: @DmytroKudin
• Mail: [email protected] 
• Linkedin:  https://ua.linkedin.com/in/dmytro-kudin-0abb88239

• Support the podcast and get a discount on an annual plan for 365.training by visiting https://365l.ink/MSDW.