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Subject:Who should pay for career development? -Reply From:NANCY KAMINSKI <NKAMINS1 -at- FAIRVIEW -dot- ORG> Date:Tue, 4 Mar 1997 09:00:56 -0600
>>> Russell Kilday-Hick <rkilhick -at- SFSU -dot- EDU> 03/03/97 10:26pm >>>
What kind of training or career development does your company offer
and who pays? Do you expect your employer to pay for all or at least
part of retraining ? And if you are independent, what trainings do you find
worth your time and money?
My employer (Fairview Hospital) allows me 1 out-of-town conference a
year (in my case, I choose to go to the STC International Conferences)
and several in-town training seminars. Fairview pays for the whole thing.
It seems to amount to about $2000 per year. The seminars have to be
job-related, of course. I've gone to HTML, desktop publishing, online help,
and effective editing and writing seminars. They also sent me to a
Thunderlizard Pagemaker convention out of town (waves to Tim Cole!).
While I'm at the convention, not only do they pay the entrance fees and
hotel/food, they also let me rent a car. They pay for the long-term parking
for my own car at my airport. There's no per-diem, just reasonable
restrictions such as not dining at five-star restaurants. They will not pay
for liquor.
Most of the employers I've worked for paid for training to some extent.
And since Fairview's payscale is a bit, shall we say, on the low side, I
feel it is a very important compensation to me. I've never paid for any
training I've gone to.
"...What is your perspective on continuous education to keep up with
new developments in technology? Do you avoid it when you can, or is
avoidance professional suicide? What kinds of trainings are the most
effective for you?"
Keep learning or commit professional suicide. Fairview isn't into intranet
or online help (yet) but I've taken classes to be prepared for the moment
when a manager looks at me and asks, "Can we do this?" I want to be
able to say, "No problem."
Nancy Kaminski
Fairview Hospital and Healthcare Services
Minneapolis MN
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