Get Your Company To Pay For Your Education

Almost every company that values their employees gives them opportunity for additional training and development. More skilled employee is motivated to bring positive changes to the company and is more motivated to do their job!

For that case, organizations offer either partial or full reimbursement. However, according to a study by Talent Culture, only 5% to 7% take the advantage of these opportunities. Some team members believe that extracurriculars won’t fit into their schedule (and infringe on their personal time) but majority of them either aren’t aware of these perks or are nervous to ask their supervisors.

There are huge advantages on both sides to take the leap and sign up for extra education on the company's credit. Here are the top reasons:

• Companies increase employee loyalty, reduce turnover, increase productivity and expose them to swatch of knowledge which wasn’t attainable in-house.
• Employees bring the knowledge and skill in the company and provide a breeze of fresh air with increased motivation and new ways to raise performance (and results) in the company.

It’s a plus plus for both sides!

How to Convince Your Employer to Pitch In?

The biggest hurdle is going to be convincing your management that the company is going to benefitted from the knowledge and skills you acquire. The first person to ask about the educational opportunities is your Human Resources manager.

They are up-to-speed with company benefits and perks. Your case must be convincing and contextual to the work you are already doing at the company. On the other hand, some companies can also take advantage of tax credits and deductions if they invest and fund employee education!

How to Pitch Your Employer

Prepare yourself! Before you go and make your case you should know how this extra education will benefit the whole company. Don’t talk about how you want it. Instead frame it in a way on how it helps your employer or company’s bottom line. In other words — what’s in it for your boss?

Reputable companies believe that education is an investment. Some Circuit Stream alumni were able to build a software prototype as the final project for their companies at the end of the course.

Until you’re confident enough that you have good arguments, don’t make an appointment and proposal just yet.

Here are some sample questions you should be confident of answering:

• Why do you want to do this specific course?
• What are the benefits of this course?
• Will this impact your day-to-day focus and current responsibilities at work?
• How long will the course take?
• What are the costs involved with the course?
• How will this course make an impact on your role/company?

Flagship Circuit Stream courses cost between $3,950 (10-week XR design and development courses) to $14,950 (Unity Developer Bootcamp). For the company to justify this expense I recommend you come up with a list of benefits for your company.

To help you win the case, we prepared a one-page PDF that lists the skills and competencies acquired through our courses.

Click to download the email script.

Click to download the one-pager budget proposal.

In your pitch, you should also mention your learning plan and how it relates to your position at the company. About 30% of students who take the courses at Circuit Stream are building solutions for their company (all our courses are project-based) or acquiring a skill that will let them research and explore introducing the immersive/real-time 3d in the near future.

Offer Progress Reporting

Another way to keep your benefactors happy is to keep them in the loop with your progress during the course. This doesn’t have to be a detailed daily breakdown of things that you’ve learned — your supervisors are even busier then you are.

Weekly high-level report in bullet points of what you’ve learned this week and why it’s important is more than enough.

Every ‘investor’ is curious about how the funds are transmuting into positive ROI and at the beginning of the course, that positive investment is returned in employees' gumption.

This also serves you as an accountability factor which will provide extra motivation to finish the course with a high grade of completion.

Provide Extra Benefits

Depending on where you live, there might be subsidized grants or job programs that can cover a portion of your education. For example, Canada Job Grant program lets eligible employers get government funding to help employees (and unemployed) individuals access training opportunities that will lead to a hire.

The grant covers two-thirds of the cost of a program or maximum of $10,000 per trainee. If the training program is aimed at an unemployed citizen, you could be eligible for 100% of training cost, up to $15,000 per trainee.

The courses might also be subject to scholarship discounts (Early Bird, Black Friday, …). Collect all the information you can get before you make the pitch. This will show your employer that you’ve done your homework, you’re eager and confident about the benefits, and last but not least, your motivation signals that you’re going to crush the training program if/when you get it approved.

Good luck with your upskilling efforts and if you need help with our courses, book a call with our admission lead.