Employee Learning & Development Stipends Guide [+26 L&D Perks]
When it comes to an organisation’s success, it’s a result of determination, grit, and a group of hardworking chaps ready to give it all. While these factors sound like the ultimate concoction of cooking up a profitable venture, the backdrop of knowledge is often ignored. After all, all the efforts in the world can’t catch the fish if you’re oblivious to laying down the bait and hook.
Learning and development are substantial for every individual on scales of their jobs, personal lives, and their ventures. An organisation can’t progress if its workforce keeps doing what it was hired to do without a change in mentality or getting their socks wet. That leap of knowledge brings forth success and experiences that define an organisation’s course of action in the long run.
Now that we have talked about why a constant thirst for knowledge leads to growth, let’s move to learn and development courses for which you get stipends—the cornerstone of a progressive, happy, and successful workforce.
What are Learning Stipends?
Long story short, learning stipends are dedicated funds for upskilling provided to the employees to spend on their personal development to their needs and requirements. Now here’s the catch—learning and development stipends don’t have to be related to one’s job description. While it can be something completely in sync with it, it can also be something totally out of connection with the employee’s job description, or in most cases, indirectly relevant.
This pill is pretty hard to swallow for conservative organisations because a coder spending the learning stipend on poetry classes won’t come without a few eyeballs there, but that’s the way it is. Learning and development stipends don’t have to be related to the job but make much more sense when they are. The coder-cum-poet situation would make the employee happy though; hence it must be present in the picture.
Apart from happiness and self-growth, here are a few pointers as to how learning and development stipends benefit the employees.
Best Learning Resources for Your Workforce
There are two broad spectrums through which an organization can distribute learning and development stipends to its workforce. While one involves reimbursing every application of stipend by checking its specifics and seeing if it qualifies, the other one saves all the hassle.
In the case of organisations that digitise their perks, rewards, and recognition practices, distributing learning stipends is a breeze. All that has to be done is offer your workforce courses, classes, and seminars through URLs and codes which they can use to take up the learning in question.
This also leaves open the element of choice as the organisation can reward points to employees which can be cashed in at the store for the courses they want to take up. The question is, where would you find a catalogue with a variety of learning and development courses? At Xoxoday Stores!
Let’s look at some learning and development courses & stipends that you can offer your employees for ironclad knowledge and immense wisdom.
Learning Gift Vouchers for Employees
1. 12-in-1 Digital Marketing Course
Where: Udemy
With more than 50 million students gathering tons of knowledge from 57,000+ teachers, instructors, professors, and connoisseurs, Udemy offers courses in more than 65 languages which means there is something for everyone. This digital marketing course is one of the best learning and development courses, a comprehensive one, with a series of 12 courses bundled into one-- everything that's needed without loose ends.
2. Full-fledged Python Bootcamp
Where: Udemy
The Python language is dominantly used in all aspects of code and it's a crucial lesson for new ones stepping into the world of back-end tech. This all-pervasive Bootcamp course on Python would be just the perfect start for your employees.
3. MS Excel: from Newbie to Pro
Where: Udemy
MS Excel is still the most prominently used data management tool in the MS Office package and all over. This handy pocketbook has a lot more to offer than just crunching up numbers and is capable of handling enormous data. Learn all about it with a concise Advanced MS Excel course that rules them all.
4. Web Development Bootcamp
Where: Udemy
Get into the web developer's gloves and gift your employees the complete web development Bootcamp by Udemy which comprises all the important guides and materials for anyone to step into the world of web development.
5. The Complete Data Science Bootcamp
Where: Udemy
Labelled as the hottest job of the next decade, everyone is getting into data science and big data as the possibilities are limitless from a personal development point of view. This full-fledged Bootcamp on Udemy will have your employees covered.
6. Learn Blockchain, Project Management, and Linux
Where: Whiz labs
Along with cloud computing, Java, big data handling, and technologies like Red Hat and CompTIA Linux+, Whiz labs offer a course on the blockchain which caught our eye and it gets all eyeballs of employees too.
7. Managerial and Technical Courses
Where: Sprint Zeal
Sprint Zeal offers skills that are in demand throughout the globe and with courses in agile management practices, project handling, digital marketing, and AI, it's a great gift as a voucher for employees.
8. Learn a Foreign Language
Where: Cakap
A person is deemed to be a better fit if s/he is proficient in not just two, but three languages. Online learning has been revolutionized for learning new languages and this course from Cakap unlocks a lot of new languages to learn.
Premium Learning and Development Perks
9. Upskill with an advanced digital marketing course
Where: IIDE
In today's digital landscape, the importance of mastering the realm of digital marketing cannot be overstated. With the rapid advancements in the marketing industry professionals are looking to enhance their skills digitally with an advanced digital marketing course. When it comes to reliable and effective learning resources, IIDE stands out as a leading institution for digital marketing courses. With their comprehensive curriculum and industry-relevant expertise, IIDE equips learners with the knowledge and tools necessary to excel in the dynamic world of digital marketing.
9. Upskill your employees with Data Science courses
Where: Edureka
In modern times, the crucial nature of cloud computing, data science, AI, big data can’t be ignored. Many professionals are looking for avenues to upskill themselves in these areas and Edureka is a prominent learning resource for learning technical courses.
10. Equip your employees with crucial E-degrees in new technology
Where: Eduonix
E-degrees are the new age replacement of the powerful document rolled into a scroll and ready to be used for the most important purposes. At Eduonix, E-degrees in cybersecurity, cloud computing, IoT, and stack development courses are all up for grabs with wholesome bundles. Give your workforce the technical edge by providing them with an option to opt for Eduonix E-degrees.
11. Grand technical courses at feasible prices
Where: Eduonix
With a myriad of technical courses up for grabs at Eduonix in the field of AI, Machine Learning, Web & Mobile development, Software Engineering, Digital Marketing, and much more, give your employees the freedom to opt for what suits them best. Catch them all at Eduonix.
12. Learn to code
Where: Stay Qrious
Coding is the modern art of storytelling and with a huge fraction of technical fields dependent on people knowing at least a novice level of coding, your employees would love to cash in their learning and development courses on learning how to code.
13. Remote Team Management Coaching
Where: Peak Performer
This one's for all the leaders in your organization-- get remote managerial coaching from Peak Performer and work on issues like stakeholder management, effective communication, remote team development, conflict resolution, and much more. Watch your organization get smoother as the leaders run how to be super-effective in remote management.
Learning Offers & Perks on Xoxoday Plum for Employees
14. SimpliLearn Employee Training and Development Portal
Where: SimpliLearn
SimpliLearn has the best courses to offer for working professionals and they have been crafted by industry experts in the fields of IT, Cloud Computing, AI-Machine Learning, and lots more. This comes up as a Xoxoday Exclusive with great discounts for Xoxoday Plum Users.
15. Digital Marketing for Intermediates
Where: We Make Creators
The onus of the internet has blessed us with digital marketing and it's a miraculous process to take any business to the top-- be it in terms of fame or numbers. This course comes from "We Make Creators", who shall guide you through the intricacies of digital marketing with ease.
16. Advanced Excel Course
Where: We Make Creators
This MS Excel course is an excellent perk to offer your employees as they can easily get into the nitty-gritty of the package tool which comes in use in daily walks of work life.
17. International Open Academy (Xoxoday-Exclusive)
Where: IOA
The International Open Academy (IOA) is the biggest open learning destination for everything and everyone. The courses range from Arts and Crafts to Med-School, Animal care to Hospitality and so much more. They are highly accredited for their courses. Get a XOXODAY-EXCLUSIVE offer at the IOA's courses for your workforce.
18. Learn Redis from Scratch
Where: Udemy
Redis is an open-source (BSD licensed), in-memory data structure store, used as a database, cache, and message broker. If your employees are geeky enough to know what all that is, they surely would be intrigued to take up this course from Udemy-- it's got thousands of participants and they keep growing every day.
19. Learn photo and creative editing with Photoshop
Where: We Make Creators
Photoshop is a tool that insurmountably comes to use for everyone-- the writer, the editor, the designer, and the campaigner. It's a must-have skill and this course would give your workforce a firm grip on Adobe's Photoshop tool.
20. The Complete YouTube Marketing Course
Where: We Make Creators
Video content has been consumed the most in the latter half of the 2010s and this decade belongs to it. With platforms like YouTube and TikTok doing rounds, a YouTube marketing course for your workforce would surely set up your end consumer's business on a platter.
21. Data Science for Construction
Where: University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is globally recognized as one of the excellent multi-faceted universities. With edX-- the online portal where n number of courses can be done from the best global universities, this course from NUS would be a great value addition for practical coding and Python Programming.
22. Give them a Book Stipend
Where: Vital Source
Books are an indispensable part of learning and meanwhile, most organizations prefer maintaining an in-house library, book stipends are important for remote employees. Help your workforce by equipping insightful books in their arsenal through a book-specific learning stipend.
23. Emanate the Creative Juice Flow
Where: SkillShare
SkillShare is one of the most grown platforms for e-learning courses that are on the creative end of things apart from the business frenzy. From mastering photography to piano lessons, sketching and poetry, writing, your workforce can truly choose to discover itself by picking up any of these.
24. HR-Management for Non-HR
Where: ScoopOn
People management isn't just a day job for HR. In fact, managers tend to face all the problems that HR faces on their ends because it involves running a team together. That's why this HR Management course from ScoopOn will get all the leaders in your team in the groove.
25. Comprehensive AI & Machine Learning course
Where: ScoopOn
The AI and Machine Learning course from ScoopOn rigorously deep dives into the intricacies and clears all doubts for novices, experts, and beginners alike. The best part? You can get it at 90% OFF for your team via Xoxoday Plum.
26. Digital Marketing Course
Where: ScoopOn
ScoopOn’s digital marketing course is available for just 6% of the price and this limited deal is only available at Xoxoday Plum. Urge your workforce to take their marketing aspirations to another level with it.
You can check the full list of learning resources that Xoxoday Plum offers on the Xoxoday Stores.
Benefits of Continuous Learning and Development for Employees
Every human being wants to personally grow into a self-determined, highly esteemed, efficient, and happy individual with wisdom (and sometimes money). To add it all up, the benefits of learning stipends can easily be embossed on the individual’s personality as it blooms them into who they are in professional life. Here are a few benefits of e-learning for employee training and development.
68% of employees say employee training and development is the company’s most important policy. - ClearCompany
Let’s look at how learning and development courses & learning stipends help employees.
1. Groom better talent for tomorrow
The person who grooms out of an employee who’s making the most of learning stipends in the right manner is just perfectly holistic. Not only does it pan out to be a great investment to bloom them into something better but saves on potential costs of hiring a whole different prospect with the same knowledge as the current employee who’s filling the same shoes with their wisdom.
2. Develop in-house connoisseurs
24% higher profit margins are up for grabs for employers who develop L&D programs for their employees -HuffPost
Well-rounded employees turn out to be more efficient than the specialists they once were before obtaining new avenues of knowledge. The organisation, with the help of learning stipends, can encourage them to step into a tricky role that needs a person who’s been with them for a while rather than a new joiner. This pretty much ensures that a multi-faceted employee will outperform anyone who specialised in just one thing.
3. A truly engaged workforce
An organisation’s culture determines its efficiency. An organisation can’t punch in big numbers or cash in fat retainers with burned-out employees. To prevent that from happening, keeping the workforce engaged is fairly crucial. Be it something as simple as a peer-to-peer book exchange or a structured employee learning and development program; it keeps the workforce engaged as they always have something to look forward to in terms of self-growth.
4. Increased happiness quotient
When the learning and development training programs are left to be decided for themselves by employees, they grow a sense of mutual trust as the organisation makes a statement by trusting that employees know what’s best for them. This bolsters the employees’ judgment, and they consider their jobs while choosing what to learn next through allocated stipends.
Now that we know the benefits of employee learning and development stipends, let’s look at how the management can capitalise on learning stipends.
How Learning Stipends Help the Organization?
Learning stipends aren’t just a non-associative perk where the employer gets an unfair end of the bargain. On the contrary, learning stipends shine the organisation’s image in bright light, and here’s how it helps the organisation:
1. Incentivised learning and structured growth
Every learned employee knows that a learning and development stipend is nothing less than a reward. Managers, HR, and CXOs can incentivise these stipends and unlock them for every target achieved by the workforce. In most cases, employees would be more than happy to oblige to the given targets, which of course are aligned to the organisation’s objectives. This leads to a learning curve that is incentivized as and when the employees achieve their targets.
2. Attract Aspiring Talent
It’s been established that a young hotshot can climb the corporate ladder faster with tremendous potential, while a polished professional might have their hard ways that get things done. With Gen-Z set to dominate the workforce share in the next decades that follow, ones who have a knack for learning can be of great use to the organisation in the future course.
3. Track the Adoption Metrics
The number of people using the organisation’s learning stipends will give a formidable insight as to what are their aspirations. A way to persuade the employees to make use of learning stipends is to communicate suggestions through managers as to what courses would help whom.
4. Imbibe Learning in the Organization’s Values
About 70% of learning on-the-job happens informally. -Forbes
Since every organisation’s key selling point is its mission, vision, and value statement, it is important to put an element of self-growth in there. When learning and development would be in the organisation’s Mission-Vision-Value statements, anyone who’ll join the crew would know the importance of self-growth to stay with the flow. As most businesses simply perish without innovation, anyone who’s a part of your organisation would bring the learning attitude with them.
5. Great Employers Offering Great Learning Stipends
Here are a few examples of employers offering lucrative learning and development stipends.
- Indico: The machine learning and AI behemoth offer a $5,000 annual stipend for career development to all its employees. These can be cashed in for a variety of intricate courses both within and outside the technical hemisphere along with conferences and conventions.
- Udemy: The most expensive courses on Udemy go up to $5,000, and they are all up for grabs—irrespective of the price tag—for their employees without any cost. Udemy believes that its employees turn out to be the best testers of the course content on the learning platform.
- Reddit: Reddit’s Evolve Benefits scheme strives for growing by learning as they encourage continuous learning of their workforce by supporting their aspirations financially.
- Automattic (WordPress): With a $250-a-month stipend kept aside for employees’ learning and development, the WordPress parent organisation fully encourages giving a few hours a month off for extracurricular learning of its employees if needed.
- Amazon: Amazon is well and truly famous amongst students as they have a chance to hit two birds with one stone. Amazon’s Career Choice program enables the employees to discover new skills and apart from that, seek up to 95% of reimbursement on college tuition in four years.
Looking for an Employee Benefits Platform Provider?
Perks and benefits are essential to a workforce that has more reasons to work than just money. As learning and development are pivotal in today's scenario, these perks can't be gathered altogether without a huge chunk of hassle. What would make much more fiscal sense to the organization is an employee benefit platform provider.
Consider Xoxoday - the ultimate digital rewards, perks, and recognition platform for sending out employee perks in learning, health, experiences, recreation, entertainment and more. Check out Xoxoday and give it a try if you like it.
Let the Learning Begin!
This was all about learning and development stipends that are offered by many organisations as a magnet for new talent, fresh skills, and greater success. Although the cost might look to be handsome at first, the opportunity costs are abysmal if it pays off!