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Budgeting for Excellence: Managing Continuing Education Costs

Managers confront a myriad of challenges daily, from managing interpersonal dynamics to strategizing for team success. Among those hurdles is how to provide and implement meaningful training and professional development courses for their teams. Frontline managers may also face budgetary constraints, as it is often difficult to secure funds for these opportunities. In Training Magazine’s latest annual training report their data shows variations in expenditures by industry, sizes of business, and types of training expense (see https://trainingmag.com/2023-training-industry-report/ for the 2023 report). One conclusion that could be drawn is that training expenditures are not rapidly increasing over the last six years. Managers who believe in the value of lifelong learning and professional development may face headwinds when seeking executive support for training and development budgets. One way managers can support their business case for development dollars is by exhausting free and low-cost options. Fortunately, many options exist for managers, if they’re willing to put in the effort, get creative, and stretch their negotiation skills. This article aims to provide front line managers with ideas and resources to start developing the training and learning journey for their teams, with an emphasis on free and low-cost resources.

There are at least four options avenues managers can explore to support their teams’ training and professional development: (1) internal departments, resources, and expertise, (2) colleges, universities, and professional associations; (3) professional networks external to the company and (4) free online resources (especially MOOCs).

First, managers and leaders of corporate training initiatives may be surprised to find out what free resources their company already offers. Of course, this will vary with the size of the organization, but many larger professional services organizations may have subscriptions to training resources or relationships that are unknown to the front-line managers most often tasked with developing and training teams. As with many challenges or issues in a large organization, the biggest hurdle could be finding the right person to ask. A Learning and Development, or similar department, and/or a Chief Learning Officer is the first, and best place, to start. Look at that part of the organization and their organization chart to see if there is someone you can contact to learn more about internal learning resources. As some companies build out these functions there could be learning strategists, trainers, and other specialized staff available to assist. If your company does not have a dedicated learning and training function, then the next department to connect with would be the Human Resources team to learn and see what, if any, training resources might be accessible and not widely known about in an organization. For example, HR departments may subscribe to learning libraries, programs, and publications that can be accessed by the larger enterprise and they may have existing contracts and relationships in place with external training organizations. These types of resources may not be free, but they also may be expenses already incurred and budgeted for by the larger organization; thus, relieving a manager from needing to seek out added budget approval and funding. If help has not been secured after these two stops, some less obvious departments to consider might be Compliance or Information Technology. For example, Compliance is frequently tasked with training functions for the organization and could have access to training programs or discounted external trainers. Likewise, given IT’s training role in many organizations on topics such as privacy and security, they may own or license learning platforms (think tools that create tests or training videos) that can be repurposed to create training materials for other parts of the organization. Beyond subscriptions to learning programs or technology tools, organizations likely have experts situated throughout the firm. Looking to boost the teams’ client service skills? It’s a safe bet someone on the team has worked in the hospitality industry and could help prepare a compelling presentation and training around communicating with customers, understanding their real needs, and delivering to them an excellent experience. Finding internal people with special and unrecognized skills can take some work and creative thinking, but there are additional, intangible benefits to searching and sourcing internally to support your training needs: it gives other team members a voice; a chance to share their skills and experience; and helps to develop and cultivate relationships across silos.

Second, in addition to unknown or overlooked internal resources, colleges and professional associations are another area managers can target for free or discounted training resources. Many business schools run free or discounted seminars to attract corporate trainers and students to their schools. These offerings vary widely, and managers can explore offerings local to their teams. Local colleges may also offer training and development activities through their alumni networks. Similarly, professional and trade associations across industries will frequently run in-person conferences and online webinars for training and development purposes. Of course, conferences can require travel expenses and conference fees, but many organizations will also run smaller, satellite events for their members. These events are frequently free and may only require providing an email to sign-up. Both colleges and professional organization may also offer recorded webinars or training on their websites, too. As these groups are in the business – at least in part – of attracting new members and students, managers may also be able to negotiate free or discounted access to training events, online resources, or publications as part of learning more about those organizations. Experiences will vary, but many school and organizations take their education and training missions seriously and will share their publication and training materials generously, at least for a limited and trial time period. These groups are also an excellent source of referrals to other experts who may be resources for training or additional referrals.

Third, and like professional associations, developing an external professional network is another resource for managers to discover training opportunities and to support group education. This sounds deceptively simple, but expanding one’s network provides additional opportunities to learn about and discover training resources outside one’s organization. This could also provide opportunities to partner with people outside your organization. For example, by combining efforts across multiple companies you may be able to negotiate discounted or reduced group rates for training and development activities. This can also expose managers to opportunities outside their immediate industries and therefore highlight resources they would otherwise miss if they only consulted with internal resources and professional associations connected their specific industry. By looking across internal resources, universities, professional associations, and ones expanded professional network, managers increase their access to information, resources, and amplify their access to learning and development activities.

Lastly, and as a contrast to the prior recommendations which are focused more on networking and interpersonal relationships, perhaps the best-known resource and where most learners start are free, online training materials. Especially those offered as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The options available through MOOCs are almost overwhelming in their quantity and availability.1 Many of these courses are free with paid version upgrades. The paid version upgrades vary but frequently include add-ons such as a certificate, graded assignments, and greater access to restricted content. Depending on a learner’s goals, the free version of these programs may be “good enough.” Some of these free online classes are also offered through colleges and universities and so content can overlap between the massive online courses and courses managers may find by reaching out to colleges and universities. These programs may not be as personalized as live-programs and their frequently self-paced style may not suit all learners well, but as a supplement to other resources and because of the large variety of topics covered, they can be an excellent free or low-cost resource.

There are likely other avenues to gain access to free or low-cost training as part of corporate training and development programs, but internal resources, schools and professional associations, professional networks, and MOOCs are a great place for a budget constraint manager to start their training journey. Additionally, for a manager interested in the topic of training and development, there are several free resources, articles, and thought leadership pieces available online to learn more about learning. By Googling “corporate training and development” and inserting the name of your favorite university, business publication, or consultant, one will likely find too many articles to read; but, these materials can help inform one’s training journey. Finally, training and development are not the exclusive responsibility of managers. Anyone who is searching for training resources may benefit from some or all of these resources to support their development and life-long learning goals.