Florida university gives students hands-on skills, job-hunting success with Microsoft courseware

A few years ago, Jonathan Buzin was enrolled in information technology classes at Florida’s St. Leo University, hoping to land a job in cybersecurity upon graduation. For Buzin, it was more than a career goal; he felt driven to help his community and his country. He’d done so first as a U.S. Marine, and now he wanted to do so by stopping bad actors online. 

Buzin was encouraged by his teacher, Assistant Professor Joshua Adams, whose technology classes were geared toward practical, hands-on learning with courseware components from Microsoft. He was in a lab class when he got his first exposure to Microsoft Azure in this way, signing in to the Azure cloud platform directly from his own devices. 

“We could experiment with Azure as much as we wanted,” recalls Buzin. “Microsoft gave us subscriptions for Azure, and I found I could experiment all I liked. I got to learn the ins and outs of Azure that way. Knowing that Dr. Adams, St. Leo, and Microsoft were equipping me with all the tools I needed to be successful changed my world completely.”

Buzin hoped he’d get a cybersecurity job after graduation, and he didn’t have to wait that long. By the middle of his senior year, he was already moonlighting as a cybersecurity engineer, conducting penetration tests and building his resume. He now works full-time in the field and also gives professional talks to share his knowledge and experience with others.

“I got hired full-time because of the training I received with Microsoft courseware,” says Buzin.

He’s not alone. Over the past year, more than 75,000 students at 500 universities across 88 countries have been trained on Microsoft technologies directly in their classrooms, thanks to the Microsoft Learn for Educators program. The program gives educators an easy way to integrate Microsoft instructor-led training materials into their existing technology courses. The ready-to-teach curriculum and training materials are aligned to industry-recognized Microsoft Certifications, to help students earn their certifications and win the jobs that go with them.

Dr. Adams teaches several technology classes at St. Leo University, from general computer science and cloud technology to cybersecurity, AI, and robotics. He’s expanding his use of Microsoft Learn for Educators to all of them.

“Once Microsoft Learn for Educators became available, I really jumped on board to provide that to my students,” he says. “It made it easier for me to provide students with the industry-standard tools and technologies that they’ll actually work with in their jobs. And they respond by being much more active in the learning process.”

Dr. Adams isn’t just thinking about how well his students do while enrolled; he’s also thinking about how his use of the program sets up his students for success after they leave the university. “The Microsoft curriculum and technologies definitely make my students more employable. More of them are finding quality jobs that they’re enjoying because of what I’m able to do with Microsoft Learn for Educators,” he says.

David Pacheco agrees. Pacheco, a senior at St. Leo University who’s enrolled in several classes taught by Dr. Adams, is also convinced that the Microsoft content in his courses will make him more marketable. 

“The experience I’m getting from classes with the Microsoft courseware is invaluable,” he says. “Dr. Adams uses them to teach the core concepts I know I’ll need in real-world settings next year. I’m a hands-on person and these labs are very hands-on, so I like that. I have friends elsewhere who only learn about cloud in theoretical terms. I’m getting my hands dirty and that experience is like a golden ticket to my first job.”

Another “golden ticket” of Microsoft Learn for Educators is the way it can help students achieve Microsoft Certifications. Dr. Adams knows the value that Microsoft Certifications can confer on students seeking employment—but his students sometimes don’t. He’s heard from recent alumni that they now wish they’d set aside time for Microsoft certification exams while they were in school. 

Dr. Adams wanted to do something about that and, with Microsoft Learn for Educators, he can. “My focus now is on implementing the Microsoft certification process within the courses themselves,” he says. “That’s when students are most likely to pass their exams. Achieving certification while they’re still students also means they can focus more fully on their job searches when they’re ready for the workforce.”

Dr. Adams draws on elements of the Microsoft-provided courseware on Azure Fundamentals, Azure AI Fundamentals, Azure Data Fundamentals, and Power Platform Fundamentals. He considers the topics he’s teaching in his own courses, identifies the materials and projects that map to them in the Microsoft courseware, and downloads them for his students’ use.

“I run four to six courses a semester without an assistant,” Dr. Adams says. “Time isn’t my friend. Fortunately, Microsoft Learn for Educators is. What’s really nice for me is that it puts everything in a central location, so it’s easy to find, download, and use.”

That’s among the many reasons that students at St. Leo University can expect to use more Microsoft courseware components in their classes. “Microsoft Learn for Educators is an amazing support for those of us in academia who want to give students an opportunity to develop their skills, not just memorize terms and definitions,” says Dr. Adams. “We serve a highly diverse student body, and many students wouldn’t have the opportunity to use these tools and technologies otherwise. Microsoft is helping us to bring equity to education.”