Employee Training and Development Programs at Cengage Group

 

Recent news of tech layoffs may have some feeling unsettled, even with reports of a resilient job market in early 2023. Whether you’re looking for a new job, to advance in your current position or to take the next step on your career path, investing time in your learning and development is imperative. And regardless of the hiring market, it’s always timely to focus on the skills you need for career growth.

Whatever your goals are, I always recommend thinking about how you can leverage employee training and development opportunities. At Cengage Group, we have training and development programs that help our employees excel in their current roles, while also building the skills and competencies needed to help them along in their career paths.

 

 

Five Benefits of Employee Training and Development

When companies invest in employee training and development, there are many benefits for both the employee and the employer, including:

1. Improved performance and productivity: When employers offer learning and development, employees get the skills and knowledge they need to do their jobs better and more efficiently.
2. Opportunities for career development and advancement: When employees have the tools and resources they need, they are more likely to have movement on their career paths and achieve their professional goals.
3. Added job satisfaction and morale: When a company is willing to spend time and money on career development programs, it shows employees that they are invested in their people. In fact, our recent research report, “Where Are They Now? The Great Resigners, One Year Later”, found that two thirds of respondents said access to employer-paid online training and upskilling opportunities was an important factor in accepting their current job.
4. Adaptability to new technologies and change: Learning new skills is a change in and of itself and I think we all get better at managing change when we have a growth mindset and are open to training and development.   
5. Increased employee engagement: Ultimately, the biggest benefit of employee training and development is employee engagement. Career development is a huge driver of employee engagement and engaged employees are more satisfied, have increased performance and stay longer.
    

 

Employee Career Development Opportunities at Cengage Group

In our ethos we pledge to “put learning first” and this mindset is engrained in our culture. It’s who we are and it’s what we do. But we still need to foster that culture of learning – it doesn’t just happen in a vacuum. We do that by clarifying that professional development is ‘employee-owned, manager-supported and Cengage Group-enabled,’ but it doesn’t stop there. It’s then part of my responsibility to ensure that Cengage Group is enabling and supporting employees by providing learning tools and experiences to help them take ownership of their career growth. At the same time, we’re supporting people leaders, so they’re equipped to provide support to each employee.  

We support employees with a variety of professional development tools and experiences to meet their needs. Regardless of how someone wants to develop in their career, we have something they can use or participate in. From tuition reimbursement for degree or certification courses taken outside of work to internal opportunities to upskill, everything we offer is in support of creating a holistic employee experience where employees feel they can be their authentic selves, have opportunities to develop and advance, be productive and engaged in their role, and able to care for their well-being. 

 

Learning and Development Through Tuition and Education Assistance

Cengage Group benefits for learning and development go beyond the typical tuition assistance – we offer Education Assistance. Employees have access to tuition assistance for college degree programs as well as financial assistance for completing certification programs. I believe this is an important component of our employee development efforts. We’re all on a different development journey. Employee training and development should help us acquire the skills and knowledge we need, regardless of our career goals.

 

 

Employee Development and Upskilling with ed2go

At Cengage Group, as part of our employee career development program, we partner with top learning providers and also provide free access to ed2go, an online learning platform from Cengage Work. Our library of courses includes ed2go's self-paced offerings free of charge. We’ve been offering career development through ed2go to employees for several years and see strong utilization. The most popular courses employees use to grow their skills and knowledge are project management, Microsoft Excel and Spanish. Additionally, we design and run many different development programs across the organization and partner with other top learning partners to provide online courses free of charge to our employees.

And, ed2go isn’t just for Cengage Group employees. Whether you're just starting out or you’re advancing your career, you can gain the skills you need to be career ready. Over three million students have enjoyed the flexibility of learning and development online with ed2go. With over 40 industry specialties and over 150 certifications, you’ll have a full range of professional development you can access anytime, anywhere.
 

Paths for Employee Career Growth

At Cengage Group, career mobility is important to us! In fact, in 2022, one in four of our open roles in the US were filled internally. In many areas of the company, we have performance dimensions, also known as competency maps, in place that help employees understand the expectations, behaviors, skills and knowledge needed for a role or a job family. With this information, they gain insight into employee career paths and can have meaningful career development conversations with their managers. Managers can have candid conversations about where employees are excelling, where they may need to improve and what they need to do to get where they want to go.

As an example, we have curated learning for many of our popular roles. So, if you’re interested in moving into a technology team, we have recommendations for how you can build your skills in that direction. We also provide professional development toolkits for those who are unsure about where they want to go in their career or what skill gaps they might have. 

We also support career mobility with a dedicated internal mobility Slack channel where employees can see what roles hiring managers are posting and connect with those leaders to learn more. This is a great way to create visibility and provide the opportunity to connect. 

 

Grow Your Career at Cengage Group

If you’re interested in learning more about what it’s like to work at Cengage Group, read more Employee Experiences and visit our Cengage Group Careers page to view open positions.