• My current company (15 years at the same place!) has gone back and forth on this over the years. I recall one employee who took advantage of the tuition reimbursement policy to get his masters, and then left six months later to pursue other endeavors in IT. The reimbursement policy was changed after that to delayed reimbursement over time. Could have been worse; I've also worked at another company where the same thing happened and they just killed the reimbursement program.

    Over the past 3 to 4 years we've been able to justify various types of training and have the company pay for it; I recently took a webinar on automated QA testing and software to support it, courtesy of a new manager. I made the case for it, detailed out the reasons why I thought it would be helpful, and they agreed it was a good investment. They'll reap the benefits of it over time and it will save them a lot more than they paid.

    I think that's my main point of disagreement with Uncle Bob. While I agree professionals are and should be responsible for maintaining their expertise, I disagree that the entire cost of that should be borne by them. Otherwise the company gains a benefit they didn't pay for, and typically you don't get an increase in salary just because you went out and got additional training. So in essence the individual ends up paying for a company benefit - and that's just plain wrong. That would the same as me saying "Hey, Toyota, you came out with a new updated version of the Corrola; you need to give me a new improved one in place of my old one - straight across trade."

    I buy my own books ( I LOVE books). I pay for some of my own training, and have been known to take a day off to attend free training locally. My company has also paid for specific training they wanted me to gain skills in, and has allowed me to attend free training locally on company time. I'm currently paying for a "personal improvement" class that will be ongoing for the next several month; it will likely benefit the company as a side effect, I just feel its not something they should pay for. All of these things work for me, and benefit my employer. I'd consider that a "win-win".

    P.S. I would never trade in my Corolla station wagon. It's 22 years old, and still gets 36 mpg city / 40 mpg highway. I'd have to go hybrid to beat that, and right now I have other goals for my disposable income. 🙂


    Here there be dragons...,

    Steph Brown