VMware APJ to launch just-in-time partner training

VMware Asia Pacific and Japan will in August launch a new training scheme for partners, CRN has learned.

Named “EMPOWER APJ” and “EMPOWER ONLINE”, the scheme will start with an event in Sydney on 13 August at which partners will be treated to a keynote by Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) chief technology officer Bruce Davie, then three technical tracks plus a business track “designed for sales and practice leads.”

The online incarnation of the scheme commences the next day, 14 August, and will offer “relevant, bite-sized information at any time, using any device” in the form of “recordings and a series of new live webinars”, plus “enablement sessions offer tips and tricks from the very best experts to help partners excel in solutions such as Hybrid Cloud, Multi Cloud, Modern Apps, Transform Networking & Security and Empower Digital Workspace.”

A schedule of forthcoming sessions lists Kubernetes education, hybrid cloud, NSX, VSAN and a wrap of VMworld 2019 as future offerings. 

VMware’s billed the new scheme as a significant change in the way it delivers training to partners. A video featuring global channel chief Jenni Flinders and chief learning officer Robin Gunn positions the new program as a more flexible way of consuming training that partners can access whenever it is most convenient.

VMware has innovated with training in the region before: in a past journalistic life your correspondent learned of mobile-only training directed at technologists in developing Asian nations. Competing modules in that scheme saw students become eligible for certification exams that VMware staged in regional centres.

There’s a certification tie-in to EMPOWER, too, as those who attend the Sydney event will receive a complimentary certification exam voucher which they can use at vFORUM 2019.