The offer is aimed at UC employees. Nobody outside the UC system can register, and the details below are for UC staff and for anyone planning something similar.
The live schedule
Registration for the live classes requires a UC email address, and all times are Pacific. UC describes each class as a 60-minute, instructor-led virtual session. Every class runs 10–11 a.m. PT on a Friday.
| Date | Course | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 23 | MS-4023, Copilot Chat Foundations | Getting started with Copilot Chat, prompting, its AI-powered features |
| Oct. 30 | AI-3025, Work Smarter with AI | Broad AI primer: grounding, agents for multistep tasks, reviewing AI output |
| Nov. 6 | MS-4005, Craft Effective Prompts | A four-part prompt formula applied in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams |
| Nov. 13 | MS-4018, Draft, Analyze and Present | Copilot Chat, in-app Copilot and agents across drafting, analysis, meeting prep and communications |
I could not confirm remaining seats, registration deadlines or whether registration is still open. Check the registration pages UC links for each class.
Which session fits whom
- Oct. 23 (MS-4023): This is the starting point. Microsoft Learn's page for the course says it is designed for business users and anyone interested in learning the basics of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Microsoft's official title for it is "Transform Ideas into Action with Copilot Chat (Basic)."
- Oct. 30 (AI-3025): UC says no prior AI experience or technical background is needed. It is a general introduction to AI at work, so it suits people who are wary of the technology.
- Nov. 6 (MS-4005): UC says the class teaches a four-part formula of goal, context, source and expectations. Microsoft's own prompt-writing guidance lists the same four elements, in a slightly different order.
- Nov. 13 (MS-4018): This one is for people who already have foundational Microsoft 365 knowledge. It covers drafting, data analysis, meeting preparation and managing communication.
The license caveat
UC says a full Microsoft 365 Copilot license will help attendees get the most from the sessions. It also says free-version users will still gain practical skills. Those two statements are worth reading together. Free-version users can attend and learn the concepts. They may not be able to repeat every demo, because Microsoft's own guidance says the Copilot features and data sources you can use depend on your license and your organization's settings.
UC's description of the Copilot Chat class mentions collaborating "securely." That is the course description's wording, not an independent security assessment. What protections apply to a given user depends on that user's account and tenant configuration.
The self-paced option: MS-4004
For people who want to practice, UC points to MS-4004, "Empower Your Workforce with Microsoft Copilot Use Cases." UC describes it as hands-on exercises in Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and other Microsoft 365 apps. It covers ten areas of work: executives, sales, marketing, finance, IT, HR, operations, communications, customer service and legal.
UC's examples of the exercises include:
- Legal: researching regulations, reviewing contracts and assessing compliance risks.
- Sales: building proposals, preparing RFP templates, and building and testing a response agent.
- IT: organizing project information, researching upcoming Microsoft 365 features, drafting adoption communications and designing employee surveys.
- HR: building an HR self-service agent grounded in approved policies.
- Operations, communications and customer service: FAQ agents grounded in approved information, plus documentation and troubleshooting checklists.
These are training exercises. They do not mean Copilot can do these jobs unsupervised, and the output still needs human review.
Prerequisites
The Microsoft Learn pages for MS-4004 are slightly inconsistent with each other:
- Course page: Students need a Microsoft 365 subscription licensed for Microsoft 365 Copilot. They also need a OneDrive account, because Copilot uses OneDrive for the file-sharing tasks in the exercises.
- Learning-path page: It says some exercises require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. It adds that Agent Builder capabilities and agent availability depend on the licenses and admin settings your organization has configured. OneDrive access is needed for the exercise files.
The cautious reading is that the license requirement is firm for the course page and softer on the learning path. Don't assume every exercise works on a free Copilot tier. Before starting, check the current prerequisites on Microsoft Learn and ask your local IT team what you are licensed for.
UC also recommends that learners first take "Get started with Microsoft 365 Copilot." Microsoft's course page says learners should already understand how Copilot works across Microsoft 365 apps, including Copilot Chat and agents.
Why IT admins should care
The agent-building exercises are the part admins will want to watch. If staff learn to build FAQ and self-service agents "grounded in approved policies," someone has to decide who is allowed to build them. Microsoft says agent availability depends on admin settings, so training demand can expose gaps in your own tenant configuration.
A practical way to use a program like UC's:
- Check which staff have Copilot licenses and which have only the free Copilot Chat experience.
- Tell attendees up front that their experience will differ depending on license.
- Confirm that agent-building settings match your policy before staff reach those exercises.
- Make sure users have OneDrive access if you expect them to do the MS-4004 labs.
- Reinforce the AI-3025 theme of reviewing AI-generated content before anyone relies on it.
Bottom line
UC staff get four free live sessions on consecutive Fridays starting October 23, and a role-based self-paced course. Everyone else gets a worked example of how a large organization might structure Copilot onboarding. The license caveat is the main thing to remember. The live classes are open to free-version users, but the hands-on exercises in MS-4004 lean on a licensed Copilot subscription and OneDrive.