We currently have a tuition reimbursement policy in place where we reimburse tuition costs not books. Recently, we have been getting requests to pay for self-study programs that are basically books that a person reads to take a test. We are questioning whether we should pay for the books for these self-study programs which means our policy has to change or keep to our policy and not pay for the self-study books. What does your company do? Thank you.

We differentiate between books that supplement the program and books that ARE the program.

My company has the same policy as yours when the student attends a traditional class. However, if the employee needs to attain a license or certification that is a job requirement, and the only way to prepare is through self study, then the company pays for the materials.

Here's a twist to your question--what's your policy related to the situation in which your company has paid for an employee to achieve a certification or even just take a class, and then the employee leaves you for another employer? Do you have the employee sign a statement at the time of reimbursement agreeing to stay for a proscribed period of time after the certification is achieved or else they reimburse the company for the cost of the class/materials? What has been your experience with that situation?

Debra & Laura,
Thanks for your response.
Debra, to answer your question, our company does not make the employee reimburse us for tuition expenses if he/she leaves to go to another employer. Our philosophy is that we don't want to penalize anyone for increasing their knowledge, we want to encourage it.

Hello,

My company requires people to stay for a certain period of time if we are funding an Executive MBA. For general MBAs or other schooling, there is no requirement for tenure.

I'm encountering an issue that I hope someone can advise me on. We have a training budget that is allocated by headcount, each person receiving a limited amount annually for training. In small business units however, this can amount to a very small amount, an amount not even large enough to fund higher education for 1 person. Does anyone have a formal plan that allows one business unit to "borrow" unused funds from another?