Last week at Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft announced six new tracks for job roles based certifications. Of these the primary focus was certification exams for Azure that provide technology professionals more opportunities to prove their skills as they progress in their career and grow their Azure expertise.

How effective is your IT training strategy? Preparing IT staff to defend against modern threats and implement new cloud-based technologies requires ongoing education. But what are the most effective training methods? Which technologies should you invest in? And how do you stack up against your peers?

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act. The legislation is a reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, a $1.2 billion program last overhauled by Congress in 2006. The new law allows states to set their own goals for career and technical education programs without the education secretary’s approval, requires them to make progress toward those goals, and makes other changes to federal CTE law.

Every employer strives to maintain high productivity at all times, but finding a way to keep your workforce regularly motivated and engaged can be challenging. If you fail to accomplish this goal, your team’s job satisfaction rating could plummet, and your valued workers may join forces with the competition. To keep your workers motivated and engaged, you must create a positive work environment.