While You Can, Take Time for Training
During certain times of the semester, additional training or professional development just isn’t in the cards. That’s why, when you have a few moments to breathe, it’s important to make time to research training opportunities and commit to them before you get caught up in your busy schedule again.
Training for Those Who Work in Education Finance
- Take advantage of industry and regulatory training that’s available to you. As you know, financial aid laws and regulations are constantly shifting. Training is a great way to stay on top of changes and remain compliant.
- Soft skills trainings are handy for anyone, but particularly for those who work in the area of higher education finance. When it comes to money, deadlines, students, and families, there are plenty of places where conflict and stress come into play. These things can also be exacerbated by shifting laws and regulations. Who doesn’t want to learn how to handle difficult conversations, manage conflict, or understand generational differences? What you don’t use in the office may be helpful at home.
- We all need to keep growing and learning, and professional development courses and certifications are a great way to do this. With new technologies and approaches to our jobs come new skills to master and additional areas of study to absorb—and new goals to set and achieve. All of this is good for increasing our productivity and our value to our customers and organization, and boosting our self-confidence.
Sources of Online Learning/Training
You’ll find a variety of livestreamed or recorded webinars to fit your needs and your schedule. In some cases, your membership to an association may include free or discounted trainings—and you may share a license for multiple attendees. For example, NASFAA members can purchase just one site license for an organization, and then invite an unlimited number of people from their institution to attend in a large conference room or call in from their desks.
Your state or regional association may offer online trainings, as well.
You can also log into your Federal Student Aid (FSA) user account and access FSA’s E-Training website to explore and schedule helpful training topics during your less busy season. This training can be particularly useful in the areas of compliance and regulation. If you were unable to attend or review session recordings or presentations from the 2018 FSA Training Conference in late 2018, our motto is better late than never.
Looking for opportunities for a group to get out of the office and enjoy an outing together? You can search for local trainings and events using Eventbrite. Or, if you have no budget, but are looking for some interesting topics to share with your office to educate, inspire, or motivate, you’ll find an encyclopedia of topics and resources among TED talks.
Share with Us
Which trainings and events have you found most helpful to your career? What was the best webinar or TED talk you tuned into recently? We want to hear about them! Join the conversation on LinkedIn.