The best workplaces emphasize continuing education and professional development and make sure employees have opportunities to pursue them. Others may pay lip service to continuing education, but don’t really back up their words. Even if your company doesn’t prioritize continuing education and provide opportunities for employees to learn and grow, there are many ways you can get the continuing education you need to achieve your goals.
Why Companies Don’t Invest in Continuing Education
Despite the benefits for companies, including improvements in employee job performance and greater retention of those employees, many companies still don’t provide or have cut back on the continuing education they provide to those who work for them. There are a variety of different reasons for this trend, but it boils down to fear.
What if the company pays for continuing education and employees use their new skills to find a better job at a different company? Employee turnover has already increased, so why spend money on training if employees are just going to leave in a few months anyway? For these and other reasons, it can be easy for companies to justify forgoing the costs of continuing education.
Why You Should Invest in Your Own Continuing Education
Even if your employer doesn’t see the benefits of continuing education, chances are that you do. Whether you plan to stay in your current job indefinitely or you want to gain stills that will eventually enable you to be promoted or get a better job, continuing education can benefit you even if you have to provide it for yourself.
Relationships with others in your career field can develop through continuing education.
Not only does continuing education improve your technical skills and help you advance them, but it also builds soft skills like communication and leadership. And unlike online training, in-person local continuing education courses can also help you build your professional network and develop a professional community of others engaged in similar pursuits to yours.
Even if your employer does provide ongoing training, it may not offer many of these other benefits. On-site training will not build your professional network, and it is likely to be narrowly focused on skills you need for your current job rather than building up your overall skills in an area, as well as soft skills.
One advantage to investing in your own continuing education is that you get to be in control of the courses you take and can be more directive about the goals you aim for. In many cases, it is worth making your own investment to have a greater chance of achieving your own goals rather than your company’s goals for you, which may be quite different.
Don’t miss out on the benefits of continuing education because your employer doesn’t value it as much as you do. CCSU offers many continuing education courses that will help you meet your career goals affordably with quality content and top notch instructors. View our open courses to see all the possibilities in which you can participate.