Continuous Professional Development is a huge part of progressing in any career and this is no exception for marketing. With a huge number of training courses that are CPD accredited, it’s no surprise everyone is looking to hit their CPD goal each year.
But we know having the commitment to CPD and finding the right course isn’t the problem, it’s being able to fund the training. As much as we want to do the training, purse strings are tight and priorities with cash often take precedence over another training course.
Thankfully, if you’re employed, you’ve likely got a CPD budget, you might just not know about it!
Most employers have a dedicated budget for employee training and professional development. Whether they’ve made you aware of this budget or not, it is always best to ask and have an understanding of the funding you can access for the year. It will then be your responsibility to find the training you think would be best suited and evidence this to your employer in order to access your training budget.
Most training courses allow for split payments, meaning even if your employer contribution doesn’t cover the full cost of the course, they can pay part and you can cover the remainder of the cost, hopefully making it more accessible.
We’ve created a free downloadable CPD log template to help you track your professional development. Download yours here.
So now you know you can ask your employer about a CPD budget, but how exactly to approach it?
Well, once you’ve done your research into exactly what CPD is we would suggest you do the following:
1. Do your research into CPD and gain an understanding of the training you could access with the right funding
2. Request a meeting with whomever you believe is in charge of managing your professional development, this may be your manager or a HR / L&D department.
3. Outline the agenda for this meeting to include your professional development goals, evidence of the impact these additional skills will have on your role and in turn, the businesses, and how the company can best support you in achieving these
4. Prepare for the meeting by deciding on your preferred training course(s) and gathering evidence for why you would benefit from taking this course
5. Begin the meeting by asking if the company has any form of CPD budget and if so, details of how much and how to access the funding
6. Following this meeting, we suggest moving forward with the information you have been given and developing your case for how best to use your CPD budget*
7. Present your manager with your training proposal and ask what the approval process looks like and the timescales.
If your CPD budget was not accepted
*At this stage, you may have been fortunate enough to receive a set budget or been told your budget is negotiable based on the training proposed, but unfortunately some of you may have been told your employer doesn’t offer a CPD budget.
If this is the case, don’t be discouraged from committing to your CPD goals. There are a range of free courses on the market that are brilliant learning resources. We have a list of short courses that may help you here.
If your CPD budget was accepted
If you were lucky enough to be offered a CPD budget and are now struggling with how to develop your training proposal, we have just the thing. We have a pre-made CPD Training Request document, specifically for our 35 point CPD Master Strategy Programme.
This document will not only evidence of why the training will benefit you but also why it will positively impact the success and growth of the business. All it requires is for you to fill in a few personalised details and it is ready to be presented to your employer. Download yours here.
If you aren’t aware of our Marketing training programme and want to learn more head to our course page or download our course brochure to find out more.