I’ve always been a big proponent of keeping your skills updated. It’s extremely important to stay relevant, learn new skills, become more efficient for your job, and especially improve your marketability.
For many years, one would have to look outside of their city workplace to find resources, schools, and institutions to help them fulfill their desire to improve or to gain a new skill. Although the city offered some trainings, they were sporadic, difficult to find, and a lot of times agency-specific.
However, the city has a resource that provides training and education that might be reasonably accessible – the Citywide Training Center (CTC).
Now the Citywide Training Center has been around for quite a few years. But it was not well known, at least in the agencies I’ve worked with. You might stumble across a brochure in a general area, or know of them because of some “mandatory” training you had to attend. But, as with everything, the internet has changed that.
DCAS has a whole citywide training and development platform that offers courses that run the gamut from training on the Microsoft Office suite to Personal Development Portfolios; Management and Supervision to Labor Relations studies.
The DCAS CTC has a course catalog here that is full of quality classes and programs.
Just Because It’s Available Doesn’t Mean You Will Be Able to Get It
Unfortunately many city agencies don’t budget time and/or money for training. This has been my biggest problem for years. Although, as they say, time is money, usually scheduling an employee time off for training was easier than getting the actual scratch together. Many years I would allocate a portion of funds for training only to have it shot down by the bean counters and my managers with the regular, typical excuses of “can’t afford it” or “there’s no room in the budget”.
The NYC Specific courses are offered at no charge but any courses that are technical or academic in nature have an associated cost. But, in my opinion, I think most are very reasonably priced or are at least competitive with their outside counterparts – but I don’t think you can pay for them as an individual. I think they are agency-to-agency transactions only.
You still may not get approval – even if funding is available. A few years ago I requested a technical training that my boss approved but his boss wouldn’t approve. She arbitrarily decided that it wasn’t relevant to my present job. She was absolutely incorrect and I couldn’t convince her otherwise.
Unfortunately I had to go outside the city and get it myself (and pay for it myself too). Today I’m using that training in support of city projects because I knew technology was moving to that methodology.
So, I can only arm you with the knowledge. You’ll have to check out the links and get your bosses to pony up the funding and the time off. But it might be a little easier for them to do because the funds are handled internally between agencies, unlike a tuition reimbursement situation. And the CTC is a city supported entity, so it generally removes any questions about the legitimacy of the school or program.
Questions or Comments are welcomed here.
