Microsoft encourages partners to show their skills

Software giant helps its channel fill their skills gaps with online skills trading platform

Microsoft has taken steps to address the growing skills gap in the IT market by launching its Skills Finder initiative.

The software giant has partnered with OrderWork, the trading website for IT skills (CRN, 13 November) to launch Skills Finder under its revamped Partner Programme.

Skills Finder is an online skills trading platform open to all qualified Microsoft resellers, designed to help them exchange resources with each other to fulfill gaps in their own employee skills base. In terms of cost, partners pay £8 to put a work order on Skills Finders and the supplier will pay 10 per cent of the work order value as a marketing fee. It is free to list as a supplier.

Speaking to CRN, Karl Noakes, director of partner development said: “If you look at all the benefits that Microsoft delivers we do have a lot of online tools to help partners connect, but one of the areas that we are getting an increase in demand for is around skills.”

“Through the tie up with Order Work, we can connect partners together and help them find the necessary skills to finish a contract.”

All partners registering on the site must have the Microsoft MCP qualification, Noakes added.

“The skills gap is a problem that the UK faces and there is demand out there from customers to deploy technology, but they are looking for qualified skills in the marketplace,” he said. “We have a vibrant training channel at Microsoft and we also invest quite a lot in subsidised training for partners. However we are finding that it is not just technical skills that people are after – it is marketing and sales skills as well.”

Noakes added that next year Microsoft will be adding more benefits to its Partner Programme by launching a Partner Learning Centre, which will allow resellers to profile their skills base and plot the course of an employee’s training.

Toby Strauss, executive chairman of Order Work said: “Feedback from partners has been very positive. It enables them to tap into a much wider range of resources and make the whole process less of an administrative burden.”

Simon Mirams, chief technical officer of Microsoft partner Glass’s Information services said: “Skills Finder is simple, easy-to-use and gives me access to difficult to find IT skills. It is an easy way to find talented interim resources that I can’t find through traditional routes.”

Paul Atherton, management consultant at partner Cerrus International said: “We needed a very specific expertise that we couldn’t find anywhere else. The system is very good and we sourced the skill we needed the next day from a validated resource.”