--- Indigo Nights <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Shawn, I'm afraid I need to interject something here.

> But this is, after all, a question of choices.  You
> chose to go into a museums career, one that requires
> ongoing coursework to advance.  You are choosing to
> want to advance your career.  You chose to have a
> family.  You chose to accept the job that you took.

Indy, I think you are misunderstanding something with what Shawn is saying. It
sounds like he's got a teaching license or another certification that requires
you to take CEUs to keep that certification.

This is different from wanting to take courses to further your own education or
wanting an advanced degree. Here an employer is requiring you to have a
qualification that you have to pay money to keep up. In that case, I think it
is at least partially the employers responsibility to pay for your continuing
education. They should definitely give you paid leave to attend courses if
nothing else.

If an employer cannot paid for employees to keep up this certification, then I
think the employer needs to evaluate how valuable the certification is for
their business. Do you really need a certified teacher to be your ed director
or will someone with equivallent qualifications without the certification be
just as good?

A flip side is facilities will pay $$$ to certify that their buildings are up
to code, to get AAM certification or to be members in other professional
organizations. Why neglect your employees? Some of the certifications are
required by law but AAM and other professional museum memberships are not. If
you pay for your museum and not your employees, what is that saying about your
organization? Who is more important?

All organizations, corporate or otherwise should have some sort of employee
training program in place. Again, this is where creativity can come into place
if you can't afford to send people to workshops and seminars. Provide time for
your employees to read their professional journals and do a brown bag lunch
discussion every week. Close for a day and have a "work/training" day around
the museum where employees can visit other departments and see what they do.
See if you can bring in a speaker from another institution or go to a seminar
at a local college. The emphasis is that the organization wants their employees
to keep up with their professional fields so which in turn will keep the
organization up with other organizations in the field as well. The more your
employees know, the better off the entire organization will be as a whole.

And if your organization requires employees to have certain certifications
which must be kept up through continued training, be prepared to pay for it
else drop that requirement on your employee. There are grants out there that
will pay for continuing education and recertification if you look for them.

Deb

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