Get Your Training Paid For in 5 Easy Steps

If you're lucky enough to have a career in IT, this hopefully means you're also lucky enough to be training for continued professional development, as well.

A quality learning experience requires effort in terms of time, dedication, and investment. Investment, particularly when it comes to funding, can be one of the stickiest challenges to training, but you may not have to pay for it on your own.

Continuous training is crucial to developing the service of your organization's needs. If your company isn't already paying for your training, they probably should be. And we think that you have the moxie to convince them to do just that.

To help you out, we've come up with five concrete strategies you can use in asking your boss to start paying for the training experience of your dreams.

Brag About Your Spot on the CBT Nuggets Leaderboard

You may have heard that we recently launched a quiz feature within our videos. With over 5,000 quiz questions already integrated into our top courses, this feature targets the learning objectives addressed in each video, ensuring you are on track to achieve your training goals.

In answering these quiz questions, you earn validated minutes. These validated minutes represent the portion of the video for which you have demonstrated your understanding of the material by correctly answering quiz questions. A validated minute count is not only accessible in your profile, but also on the local and worldwide leaderboards.

Explaining the concept of validated minutes, showing a validated minute count, or showing your spot on one of the leaderboards to your supervisor can demonstrate how much you're learning. It might even convince them to get on board with paying for your learning experience.

If your company is already paying for your training, showing them your spot on the leaderboard can prove just how hard you're working to achieve your training goals. In a way, you're demonstrating the return on their investment in training.

Bring up the Most Unwavering Evidence of Your Achievements

Without actually getting a certification for your training, the best way to prove that you've acquired skills is to show how you've completed courses.

For every course we offer, you can earn a Certificate of Completion that shares your success and marks your progress. Viewing any course in its entirety qualifies you to earn a Certificate of Completion. All courses you have completed will appear under your account information in a "Certificates of Completion" tab, along with a link to view and print your official CBT Nuggets Certificate of Completion (PDF).

These certificates are an easy way to show your employer your drive and passion for career development, and your progress through our courses. They aren't industry-approved, but they do demonstrate that you are serious about training, and taking the steps necessary to develop your knowledge and skills.

If your team is already training with CBT Nuggets, you already have a suite of tools at your disposal to track progress, including training reports. The training report compiles the number of training hours you watched, how many videos and which courses you've accessed. If you're training with a team, your admin also has access to reports for every member.

This level of reporting will help give your admin insights as to who has completed their training and help determine whether your team is on track.

If you want a personalized, in-depth report to show a supervisor, then you can easily reach out to one of the CBT Nuggets Accountability Coaches coaching is a service that is available to every subscriber.

Prove that Training is Worth It, Using Numbers

Let's be honest, even though training and learning are financial investments, it's easy to prove the value of learning through CBT Nuggets. Training online using our videos costs far less than the average boot camp.

On average, any domestic flight in the U.S. runs about $700. Average accommodation for five days tacks on another $500. And on top of this, the average boot camp tuition alone is $4,000. The grand total comes out to be about $5,200. Wow. And that's just for one boot camp covering a single technology. With a subscription to CBT Nuggets, you get unlimited access to hundreds of courses, plus all the resources you need to embrace learning all at a fraction of the cost.

If the dollars and cents alone aren't making sense to your supervisor, you can make the argument with numbers for productivity's sake. Well-trained employees make fewer mistakes and spend less time on recovery so your team can net more productive hours. Each hour spent training prevents the loss of otherwise productive time an additional 5 hours.

Every year, each CBT Nuggets learner trains an average of 31 hours. So each learner, on average, saved productivity totaling 155 hours. At an average of $38 per hour, each IT pro with access to CBT Nuggets training can recoup productivity worth around $5,900.

Share this infographic.

Reports and numbers provide a solid foundation for your argument about the value of learning with CBT Nuggets, but sometimes, all you need to see is a pretty picture to gain some clarity.

We designed this infographic to explain why self-paced, online training can work for you and your team. This infographic is part of our Resources section on our site, which is chock full of other excellent assets. You don't need to be a subscriber to access this infographic or any of our other resources.

Send this infographic to your boss along with a short email that explains how your team will save time and money, improve IT project outcomes, and increase efficiency.

We can tell you now, there are a lot of fun facts on this infographic that are rather impressive. If these don't impress your employer, maybe they aren't worth impressing.

Write Your Supervisor a Formal Request (or Use Ours)

Depending on the culture of your workplace, a written proposal might not be necessary. But if your company does require something more official, include a summary about why you need the training, how it will benefit the organization, the proposed training solution and benefits, as well as how you plan to use the training.

Don't have the time to write out a formal request, yourself? Well, do we have a solution for you! Our Letter to your CFO, also found in our Resources section, is a sample request letter that outlines how training can impact your organization to help you justify your training financial needs.

All you need to complete our template is a dollar amount for your budget, how many individual subscriptions you need, and your team's specific training needs. The rest of the letter is literally written for you.

If you and your employer casually agree on a training plan over a conversation in the break room, make sure to follow up with an email outlining your discussion. It ensures both parties are on the same page.

Having the ability to train is a resource that can help you out immensely. We have hundreds of courses in our training library, unlimited access to our videos anywhere you go, and hands-on learning support that will enrich your learning experience.

Want to know what one of the most exciting parts of our learning experience is? You can try out our training free for your first week.

So go ahead, start training, and start convincing your supervisor to cover the bill. Hope to see you online soon!