Ask Slashdot: On the Job Certification Training? 117
beerdini writes "There is a debate going on within my IT department about how our continued training offerings compare to others in the industry. I'm hoping other Slashdotters can help to provide comparisons. Currently, if we are implementing a new technology or updated software we will send someone from IT for training to become a specialist; in other words, they go to formal training as a part of their job where they learn their new skills. Alternatively, for someone pursuing an industry certification, employees usually take the training on their own time and dime. On passing the certification exam, they can submit the exam fee for reimbursement. This is the most common practice that I've seen in the various places that I've worked, but I have one co-worker who insists that it is our company's responsibility to pay for the materials, allow them to study and practice while on the job, and that all attempts to take the test should be paid by the company because it should be a company investment in the employee. So, my questions to the Slashdot community: what are the ongoing training practices in your organization? Are there any places that pay for someone to get an industry certificate? Are there any rules associated with it?"
Re:Wrong Direction (Score:3, Informative)
Training is a management box-ticking exercise, nothing more
In some branches of the DoD they use partnerships with industry, e.g. Cisco Academy, to provide initial and follow-on training. While this sounds great with 1000s of students having CCNA and CCNP training every year (without required cert test afterward), it does not translate to what the students will actually 'do'. It s a cookie-cutter approach to circumvent the lengthy 'point-of-instruction' change management process used in the military training environment. In this case I agree with the quoted sentence above as it sounds like a good news story rather than actually training the force to do their job.
For the rest of the paragraph however, my supervisor and I discussed this and he stated there are three types of education: What you learn to do your job, what you learn for your career and what he called life-long learning. How to run the new version of VMware is the first. A MCSE certification track could be the next and attending seminars related to HR and budgeting (when you are an server admin) relate to the last.