[I Are Baboon]

Does anyone here have to take the occasional training class for work? I so, how easy is it for you to get approval from your company? I'm asking because my company seems to be unusual in that they are strong believers in professional development. I just signed up for two classes (9 days total and requires travel) and I got approval pretty much instantly. Granted, one of the classes is definitely needed for a system upgrade, but the other one I thought would just be helpful (and I told my bosses this). I even expressed my concern about their budget (between my training and conferences), and was told to just sign up for whatever I felt I needed. My bosses are the best!

So what's it like at your company? I've worked for three other companies and it was never this easy.

 

[Heidi]

I've never tried. My last job was a piece of cake. I need a lot of CPE to keep my license active...80 hours every two years. I need to get on that since I did NO training last year.

 

[SkaredShtles]

It's like pulling teeth around here.

 

[I Are Baboon]

It's like pulling teeth around here.

You work in I.T., correct? From what I hear, our I.T. department is like that. I report to Finance though, and Finance controls the cash flow. My VP is a bit of a free spender.

 

[sanjuro]

Boondoggle. Funny how 50% of my training happens in the city where my family and friends live...

 

[hooples3]

it takes forever in the city, I wanted to go to a convention to learn more.. it took two years to get approved, it finally went through, I still had to pay for it myself , they finally paid me 3 months after i got back

 

[Ciaran]

Our company does most of it's training in-house. Web based and instructor led. The company encourages us to take the training as it's free and they will also pay some tuition for college and tech school courses. Provided it is related to the job.

 

[jimmydean]

I have worked for companies that had a training budget and we used it for pointless crap because it was enough to do something, but never enough to do something useful. Intel has internal training that you have to go to throughout the year, most of it is worthless. But they also do things like send engineers to Novell for certification courses rather than deal with some third party school.

I have been working for smaller companies the last few years and there is no budget. My current company doesn't even offer any sort of tuition assistance.

 

[Heidi]

Phil - going anywhere good this year?

 

[narlus]

i haven't been on a training session trip since Feb 01, when i went to SF for a week and skiied/boarded that weekend. it was great. last great conference trip (and it was a great one) was berlin in '04.

i need to get out to some, and our company is pretty good for this, but i've been too busy for project stuff to break away for a week or so.

 

[DRB]

I don't do much training anymore. My company did fully pay for my MBA. I do more conferences than anything else. I normally don't need an approval.

 

[I Are Baboon]

Phil - going anywhere good this year?

Orlando and San Francisco for conferences.

Both of these classes are in Teaneck, NJ though. I could have gone to Indianapolis, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando or Chicago, but I chose NJ since it's driving distance (no flight or rental car expense). Really, I could have picked any of those locations but I am trying to be somewhat responsible with the spending. "Spend company money like it's your own" is our company policy.

 

[I Are Baboon]

Our company does most of it's training in-house. Web based and instructor led. The company encourages us to take the training as it's free and they will also pay some tuition for college and tech school courses. Provided it is related to the job.

We have lots of in-house training too, but I have to help develop the classes for the two systems I use (I am not a trainer though).

 

[Trainwreck]

It's like pulling teeth around here.

Agreed! - I did get to spend a week in Pasadena once for telephony training only because it was free with purchase of the system.

The highlight was I was there with the department party girl. Most next days in class were pretty heinous.

 

[douglas]

I ask & ask, but nope - they'd rather the IT dept to learn as we go and not be as efficent/productive/useful as we could be

 

[SkaredShtles]

I went to Vegas for a conference a couple years ago. They put me & the fambly up in the Venetian for 4 days. That was cush. Maybe they're punishing me for that now.........