L&D budgets for web people
Some of us are lucky enough to work for companies that offer an “education stipend” as a benefit. Every employee gets a budget every year to spend on improving themselves, also called an L&D (Learning and Development) budget.
What usually happens is that all you do is “Eh, I’ll get Pluralsight” but you just watch 3 videos in the year. Then, December arrives and you panic because you realise your budget is about to expire.
I’ve been pretty good at getting value out of my budget last year so I’ll try to give you some tips to make the most of yours. This list will be updated.
1. Categories
Here are some common categories of products that you can use your education budget on
Yearly subscriptions
It’s easier for the accountants and for your manager to receive as few invoices as possible.
- MDN Plus.
- Smashing Magazine (I wrote one article for the magazine but I’m not affiliated).
- Kobo Plus if you can get it.
- Audiobooks. I’d use Libro.fm (🇺🇸/🇨🇦) or XigXag (🇬🇧, 🇪🇺) if possible.
- A language learning app like Babbel, DuoLingo, etc
Individual Books
There’s a whole section with the books I read on this website, but here are a few books relevant to our industry.
- The Little Black Book of Data by Kyle Taylor.
- Understanding Privacy by Smashing Magazine.
- The History of the Computer by Rachel Ignotofsky.
- Anything from A Book Apart.
- Anything from O’Reilly.
2. Example scenarios
If your budget is $500/500€
Obviously, you do what you want! These are just ideas 😄
Either
A national conference ($250-300) + travel ($100-150) + a subscription (~$100)
or
A local conference ($250-300) + a workshop/one-day course ($100-150) + a subscription (~$100)
or
A virtual conference ($100) + a workshop/one-day course ($100-150) + a subscription (~$100) + books ($100)
If your budget is $1000/1000€
Either
An international conference ($500-600) + travel ($300-400) + a subscription (~$100)
or
A national conference ($250-300) + travel ($100-150) + a workshop ($100-150) + one-day course ($100-150) + 2 subscriptions (~$200) + whatever’s left on books.
or
A virtual conference ($100) + a workshop/one-day course ($100-150) + 2 subscriptions + books ($100)
You get the idea! I could go on but it’s your budget at the end of the day, so it’s up to you.