There is no knowledge pill
In the technical field, we are in a time of accelerating change. As professionals, we cannot afford to fall behind into irrelevance.
In the Dynamics NAV product, we have a major new release every year with new technical and application features. The technical updates bring in new technology and new features for existing technology. We also have a number of changes and additions to the application every year.
If your employer does not have a formal training program, you need to make your own.
The CPA organization requires 40 hours of approved training every year. In IT, we need to make that the minimum requirement for ourselves.
My area is Dynamics NAV, so the below is specific to the NAV environment.
Books and training materials
Microsoft used to put out training manuals for each area. They stopped making this investment in the channel, but we are fortunate in having a number of independent authors with books about NAV.
Safari Books Online has all the NAV books, plus many technical books on other relevant subjects, plus some training videos. Its cost is $400 per year and well worth the investment. (I have no financial interest in this vendor.)
Conferences – Microsoft has one partner conference per year. If you work for a partner they can send you. I have sometimes paid my own way. This year I decided to go to Mibuso’s TechDays in Antwerp, Belgium, plus go to 2 pre-conference training days. NAVUG has conferences during the year – this is open to all, and geared around end-user needs with a dollop of the latest and greatest from Microsoft. Going to Directions or TechDays is vital to keep up with the technologies and features introduced with the new release.
Other training – NAV Skills has started offering training classes in various subject areas. The classes do have a cost, but they are taught by experienced instructors, and are another good way to deepen your skill set.
FREE!!! Nav Skills also offers frequent one hour webinars on different, relevant subject areas. These can be viewed live or later on at any time on Mark Brummel’s YouTube channel.
More FREE – Mibuso offers the audio recordings and presentations from their 2 day TechDays conference. The material is better than Direction’s since the sessions are twice as long and include both audio and PDFs of the slides.
Required other technologies: SQL Server, Visual Studio, Excel, Word, PowerBI, Azure, and Windows 10.
Other technologies worth learning include GitHub, Docker, C#, JavaScript, etc.
All of these have books and videos at Safari Books Online.
There is a lot to learn, and realistically you will need far more than 40 hours per year, but if you want to stay relevant, you need to make the investment.
One suggestion for Microsoft – if you want an educated and informed channel who is proficient in the new versions of your products, require a minimum of 40 hours of approved employee education an annual requirement for all consultants and developers in the partner channel.
Or come up with a knowledge pill….