Developers interested in getting started with the building of apps using the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview can now get a taste of the December 2011 Release of a Training Kit to help them kick off the learning process.

The new release brings along a series of hands-on labs aimed at providing app builders with a better understanding on what the new Visual Studio 11 and the .NET Framework 4.5 are all about.

At the same time, the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview Training Kit should offer them an overview of what the development of applications for the Metro UI involves.

The new Training Kit comes from the Developer & Platform Evangelism group, and requires the Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview to have been installed on the targeted system, as well as .NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview.

“The Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview Training Kit includes hands-on labs to help you understand how to take advantage of the variety of enhancements in Visual Studio 11 and the .NET Framework 4.5, how to support and manage the entire application lifecycle and how to build Windows Metro style apps,” they explain.

The training kit offers support only for the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems.

In order to have the new Training Kit installed, all interested users will have to download two files, Microsoft explains:

The file VS11TrainingKitDecember2011.Setup.exe will install the entire training kit, After downloading this file, you do not need an Internet connection to install the files. Download and launch the self-extracting package. The Training Kit will uncompress to the selected folder and launch a HTML browser for the content.

The file VS11TK_WebInstaller_Preview.exe provides you with the ability to install all or only some of the training kit. Download and launch the self-extracting package. Then select the labs you wish to install. You can rerun the installer to add labs in the future. This installer requires an Internet connection.

You can find the new Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview Training Kit December 2011 Release available for download from Softpedia as well, via this link.