Tuition Reimbursement

Executive Education tuition reimbursement and how to ask for it

There are countless reasons why savvy employers prioritize investing in employee training and development. Professional development attracts and retains top talent, increases staff productivity, helps staff navigate organizational change, and boosts the bottom line. But if your employer isn’t broaching the subject, you can proactively request training yourself.

Most organizations have funds set aside for tuition reimbursement. Tell your HR representative that you are interested in external employee training and education. They should be able to supply you with a tuition remission application. Once this form is complete and approved, you are able to apply for any of our courses.

Making a business case

Executive education consists short training courses and certificate programs that help professionals of all backgrounds (not only those in executive positions,) enhance their leadership, communication, and other critical business skills.

Executive education is seeing unprecedented investment, as much as $50 billion annually in the U.S. Still, asking your employer to fund a Johns Hopkins Executive Education course can be a delicate subject, especially when budgets are tight. When your boss’s focus is on the bottom line, you need to be prepared to make a clear argument for why it’s in the best interest of the company. Fortunately, there’s a wealth of data to help you make a business case for training funding that’s hard to argue with.

Here are four points you can bring up when asking for executive education and other training opportunities at work, plus an email template you can customize for your specific situation.

1. “I’ll be a more productive, more valuable employee.”

Employee training works. According to one study, The True Cost of Not Providing Employee Training, companies that prioritize employee development make median revenue per employee of $169,100 compared with $82,800 for companies that don’t. If the course you’re interested in is related to leadership development, you can also use compelling data from this Ken Blanchard study and this Deloitte University Press article, Better pond, bigger fish,  to demonstrate that investing in your leadership development will benefit the company’s bottom line. Your pitch can go something like this:

“Studies show that by implementing the leadership practices covered in this executive education course, I will be able to increase my productivity by at least 5 percent, helping me complete projects more efficiently and add more value to the company. That increase in productivity is why, as other studies show, companies that invest in developing their employees’ leadership skills see 37 percent higher revenue per employee and 9 percent higher gross profit margins.”

And if your company is public and has shareholders to please, tell your boss: companies that rate highly for their investments in human capital deliver stock market returns five times higher than those with less emphasis on human capital.

2. “I’ll incorporate what I learn into our organization.”

Johns Hopkins Executive Education courses are designed to produce real-world solutions fast. Bring actual work challenges to the class so that you can bring immediate, actionable insights back to your organization. Part of that is sharing what you learn with your co-workers. When making your business case for training, offer to prepare a presentation about the course and provide specifics about how it can be integrated into your current structures, strategies, and policies. Emphasize that through this one course, your employer is really investing in entire teams and divisions, increasing the value of their investment.

3. “I’m ready for more responsibility.”

Even if there aren’t opportunities to take on more responsibility or assume leadership roles at your organization, there may be opportunities in the future. Johns Hopkins Executive Education courses can help ensure you’re ready when the opportunity arises. Let your boss know that you’ll be gaining the skills you need for a leadership role, and you’ll be ready for advancement when the time comes.

This also demonstrates to your boss that you’re preparing for a future with your organization. Replacing an employee can be extremely costly—ranging from 20 percent of annual salary for midrange positions to 213 percent of annual salary for highly educated executive positions. Making it clear that you’re committed to growing within the company should be a compelling reason for your boss to invest in your professional development. This is why 94 percent of companies plan to increase or keep the same level of investment in leadership development training year-over-year.

4. “Investing in my education is less expensive than hiring and training a new employee.”

Compare an Executive Education course to the cost of hiring and onboarding a new employee. The hiring and training process can range from 20 percent to 200 percent of an employee’s salary. When it comes to bringing the latest best practices and critical new skill sets to your organization, it’s far more cost-effective for your boss to let you acquire those skills through professional development training than it is to hire someone from the outside the company.

Johns Hopkins Executive Education courses make you a smarter, stronger professional. You get better at your job. Your organization sees better results. Both you and your employer benefit.

To help make the conversation about investing in your next professional and leadership training opportunity easier, use our email to make a clear business case to your boss. You just need to fill in the blanks. Of course, you know your employer best, so tailor the wording to how they will best receive it. It can help you secure funding as you register for executive education courses that make you a more versatile professional and advance your career.