Funding for PD | Suite101.com

Posted by
Joni Rose
Jun 19, 2006

Many people I know don't take full advantage of their PD fund allotment. Many companies put aside a dollar figure per employee for training and some give each employee a fixed dollar figure to spend on external training such as continuing education, eLearning courses and books or magazines.

If you haven't checked to see if you have dollars coming to you - please do! I can't stress how much of a benefit this can be to you. It can increase your skill set, motivate you, improve your confidence level, boost efficiencies and help you stay on top of industry trends and developments.

In fact, creating your own professional development plan to match your career goals is a great way to help those goals come to fruition.

If your goal is to move into management one day, start a plan to take leadership development courses, read books on leadership and management and subscribe to an industry magazine or journal.

If your goal is to move into a new industry, start by joining a professional organization in that industry and attend networking meetings, conferences or events.

If your goal is to make more money, start researching ways to increase your salary. Sometimes the answer is to get a promotion into a leadership role but in other cases, your salary can increase if you learn a new software program or earn a certificate (first aid, safety training, project management, event planning, fork lift operation, etc.).

Use your PD funds to help you get where you want to go in 5 years. Think ahead and plan ahead and those training dollars won't go to waste.

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