How to convince your boss to send you on training
Anyone who is actively managing their career will likely be focused on developing their skillsets. While many jobs naturally provide a lot of opportunities to learn, training is a really effective way to upskill quickly, expand your knowledge, and perform better at work.
Despite this, it can be difficult to convince managers to send you out for a day, especially where your organisation lacks an effective learning culture or where there's a limited budget for learning and development.
So how can you convince them to help you get the skills you need to progress your career?
"Training is a great, direct way to up-skill and expand your knowledge to perform better at work."
Show that you really want it, and do your homework
It's hard for anyone to say no to someone who is bursting with enthusiasm, and it always helps to back the emotional energy up with strong knowledge as well.
It's worth researching your course options carefully, choosing one that best fits your needs. This will help you to anticipate and answer any questions around the course or provider, and it'll help you articulate why the course is a good fit.
Think of it as putting together a pitch. Just like you would with any presentation, it's important to prepare, and to have answers ready to questions such as:
- How will this course immediately impact your role and the projects you're working on?
- What are the long-term benefits for your career with the company?
- How will you share what you've learned with your colleagues?
Put forward the benefits for your company
Maybe the above wasn't enough. If your boss is not convinced at this stage, it's a good idea to emphasise the interests of the company, showing that it's not just you, but your team as a whole who could benefit from your training.
Training improves employee performance
Training allows you to strengthen the skills that you need to improve, but it'll also bring benefits to your team. They'll be able to leverage your skill and knowledge level, making teamwork easier and improving your performance.
So it serves as a way of empowering your employees as well, giving you more opportunity to take over for team members, working with less help and supervision, and taking on new responsibilities.
Training improves employee confidence
We're living in times of fast change, with many sectors going through fundamental changes. Training keeps you on the cutting edge of industry developments and up to date with the latest trends and techniques. It'll give you skills, but also the confidence to take more initiatives and perform better.
Training satisfies employees
When your company supports your training it proves that it values its employees and is really keen to see them blossom. When you feel valued, you feel more satisfied and perform your job more effectively. If the training is effective, it can be another management tool to help get the most out of a team.
Training helps to retain employees
Talent is an increasingly precious resource in modern competitive markets. Having the right people is absolutely key to ensure a team performs well. Having useful training serves as a key retention tool. Who wouldn't want to work in a company that is committed to staff development?