D. Brownell Calgary Police Service pol8345@gov.calgary.ab.ca wrote:
> We are a city police service that is striving to become a learning
> organization. We have been working on implementation of this since 1995.
My hat is off to you. Somehow, I have a difficult time reconciling my
images of police departments with my vision of a learning organization.
It's a very pleasant shock to the system to have those two contrasting
images merge as a result of your message to the group.
Here's what my company does. At the first of the year, we "invest" $3,000
for each employee for undergraduate and/or certification programs or
$4,000 for graduate programs. The employee works with the direct
supervisor to develop an individual plan for continuing professional
growth, including formal education. The employee and manager submit a
form that notifies the educational department of the employee's intent to
enroll in a program and this is authorized by management. The employee
pays for the program or defers payment until after the program is
completed, and submits reimbursement requests after passing the course.
If it is a degreed program, the payment and reimbursement schedule is
offered on a course by course basis, with the understanding that (a) the
employee will complete the entire program or (b) that an individual course
is directly related to and in support of the employee's job. Future
growth and development work is planned with the manager.
The balance sheet is kept current for the year, the employee and manager
know the status of the funds available for continuing education, and it is
a "use it or lose it" account. Learning occurs on the employee's time,
not office time.
Conferences, etc. are budgeted out of each individual department to ensure
some connection between expenses and job duties.
At another company, where everyone had a master's or PhD, fulltime degreed
programs were permitted with flextime at the office or telecommuting on a
part-time basis. The employee's program had to mesh with business
objectives, and the employee was then reunited with the company after
graduating (usually with a PhD). However, this company did not pay for
the schooling. Please let me know if you need more details.
Vana Prewitt
vprewitt@bellsouth.net
--Vana Prewitt <vprewitt@mail.rdu.bellsouth.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>