IT Education & Certification: Always Investigate Employer Support

By Ed Tittel February 8, 2012 10:46 AM

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In a recent email exchange with a reader, I was able to help him learn that not only did his employer provide financial support for continuing education and IT certification, but that he could easily take advantage of such support simply by completing the proper paperwork and obtaining written approval from his boss.

The total annual value of support for which this person was eligible amounted to something on the order of $2,500 a year for IT certification, and up to $7,500 to help defray tuition and the cost of books for courses related to a degree in his field (in his case, something IT-related like computer science, information science, or computer engineering). That may not sound like much, and it wouldn’t come close to covering costs at an Ivy League class institution. But it’s enough to cover numerous IT certification exams every year, and to permit him to take two or three classes a semester at his local community college all year around.

This also reminded me that IT professionals should always ask their bosses and HR departments about any educational or certification support that may be available. Different organizations can have widely different plans for and levels of support, as illustrated by the following list of support options I’ve run across recently:

Department training budget (“One pie to be divided among employees at management’s discretion”): Lots of companies get a certain number of dollars to spend on employee training and career development every year. It’s up to management to decide who gets a piece of this pie, and how big a piece they will be served. This argues for employee lobbying or requests for access to such funds, and should be a topic of employee-to-boss conversations at least twice a year.
Individual training budget (“Use it or lose it”): Some companies allocate a pool of funds to individual employees so that each one essentially has his or her own training and certification budget to manage on a yearly basis. This will often require a formal application, and paperwork to document spending plans and costs. Some companies will reimburse training and certification expenses 100% (or impose a sliding scale based on scores or grades), whereas others will split those costs with the employee (again, sometimes on a sliding scale also based on performance, so that an A might earn 50% support, a B 40%, and a C 30%, with no support for lower grades).
Individual grant program (“Ask, and ye might receive”): Some companies use a competitive grant application process where employees must file an application for training or certification funding, to be reviewed by a committee usually staffed by senior technical types, IT managers, HR managers, and possibly a C-level executive (usually, the CIO, who has veto power, but who typically goes along with recommendations from other committee members).
First-come, first serve (“The early bird gets the worm”): Applications for support are handled in their order of submission, where those who act early receive preferential access to funds. That said, not all requests will be granted, given that a single $5,000 course could cover 20 Microsoft exams, or five people taking semester long classes at a community college. In this kind of situation, applicants would be well-advised to research the kinds of grants that have been made in the past year or two, and to try not to stray too far from typical costs and time commitments. It’s a lot easier to get $300 to fund self-study materials and a $150 Microsoft exam, for example, than to get $10,000 to fly to Redmond for a one-week Microsoft course ($5K) plus travel, lodging and exam costs (the other $5K).

No matter how your employer handles their employee support program, remember that any kind of support will stretch your dollars further. Better yet, employer support is a tangible sign that your organization recognizes and values continuing education and IT certification (which is good to know).

And, as you investigate your options for support, be sure to ask about potential strings that are sometimes attached. When employers do fund 100% of training and certification costs, they may invoke a retention clause as part of the deal under which they part with their money. This means you’ll have to sign an agreement that says if you don’t stay with the company for some period of time after the training or certification has been completed (typical durations run from one to three years), you’ll have to repay all or part of the costs involved in providing that training or certification.

Be sure you understand, agree with, and accept these conditions before you take the money, or you may end up having to bite the hand that feeds you some time in the future. On the other hand, you could go to your next employer and ask them to cover those costs as a form of signing bonus on the theory that the new employer is benefiting from what the old one paid for, and should therefore be willing to cover to gain access to your skills and knowledge.

It’s worth a try, anyway!

Ed Tittel is a 30-year-plus veteran of the computing industry, who’s worked as a programmer, a technical manager, a classroom instructor, a network consultant and a technical evangelist for companies that include Burroughs, Schlumberger, Novell, IBM/Tivoli and NetQoS. He has written and blogged for numerous publications, including Tom's Hardware, and is the author of over 140 computing books with a special emphasis on information security, Web markup languages and development tools, and Windows operating systems.

E-mail Ed at etittel@tomsitpro.com with your request for IT certification or career info, or your ideas for future blogs. If your e-mail leads him to a blog topic, he’ll have the Tom’s staff send you your very own Tom’s IT Pro t-shirt! Be the envy of your friends and colleagues, and help him help you with your IT career!

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(Shutterstock cover image credit: Skills)

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