How to Save Money On Your Next Professional Course
With a growing demand for professional training and a diverse range of course methods available, getting access to the most relevant and cost effective training solutions can be difficult. Selecting the right training for your employees is a skill and staying within budget a virtue, especially when looking to provide everyone with new and engaging courses.
Having worked with top quality training providers in the UK and internationally, Findcourses.co.uk has just the right view on how to get value from your training, whether it's attending an open course or organising an in-house training event. We collected some tips on how to save money on training:
1. Begin learning at home (aka in-house)
Hiring a specialised in-house trainer to deliver courses at your offices is an effective way to minimise costs on travel and accommodation. Spending time on collecting quotes from course will pay off when adding up the numbers for what you would've paid to train your entire team on a public course
In-house training will save you the hassle of organising an entire training trip. Plus, you get the content tailored to your company, make sure no confidential information leaks in-class and actually build a relationship with a training provider. You may get some good discounts your second time around.
2. Use on-the-job training methods
If you found just the right workshop for your team, timing and venue are perfect, and there's just one extra spot left - go for it! Enrol your best public speaker in the course and make sure to organise a follow up workshop at your offices. Get your team delegate to share the learning experience, tips, techniques with the rest of your staff.
In the long run everyone can benefit when you arrange for senior managers, who have already been trained in several seminars, to run the induction period for new employees and ensure they learn from the best and get immersed easily in the workplace culture.
3. Try out a MOOC
MOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses, are offered by prestigious universities and higher education bodies in a wide variety of subject areas. Enrolment on many of the programmes is entirely free, however some MOOC providers charge a certification fee - something you may want to pay for, to make sure your team keeps up with the lectures and completes the homework.
MOOCs prove to be an excellent learning platform, giving participants flexibility to complete their assignments at a convenient pace, whether at work, at home or a combination of the two. Trying out a MOOC is a way to demonstrate your innovative learning culture and keep your team informed about trends and technologies available in your professional sector.
4. Choose a flexible payment scheme
You can negotiate your payment terms with the training providers or choose one of their flexible pricing plans. This helps you save money short term, especially when making a big investment such as for an MBA programme or extensive corporate training programme for your entire organisation. Or you can go for the opposite approach: pay the one-off fee to save on your total costs.
5. Look for discounts
Course discounts are available across various training formats. Early bird discounts are often advertised by training providers when they release their course calendar for the new term. So plan your training at least three months in advance to make the most of your training budget - you snooze, you lose!
Multiple booking discounts are available for organisations who enrol multiple delegates on the same course at a same programme. These are not always advertised publicly by the training provider, as it's often part of a loyalty programme. If you haven't signed up for one, it might be a good idea to ask your training provider about membership benefits and discount plans.
Last minute might also be a good time to bargain - course organisers who want to fill up their last spots on a course will advertise their programmes. So you may want to get in touch with the training provider and ask about offers for their nearest course start date.
6. Go old school
If your area of activity is not subject to change from one month to another, resources are limited and the company is opting for low cost measures, then choosing books is a convenient way to pass on the knowledge, almost literally: gather resources for an office library. You can gather documentation and case studies from your industry to help your team explore similar scenarios. Your senior managers can lead open discussions with the rest of the team and share their own portfolio
Over the years, the training industry has been thriving and the growing demand for quality training on the job, has required companies to stretch their training budgets and look for the most value for money deals - whether last minute, in-house or as early birds. As long as you're committed to your professional development, there are numerous options to make training happen and not leave a hole in your budget.