Quite often students in employment who are considering applying to a professional course or qualification ask their employers to support them financially, for example, by asking employers to pay the course fees. In the majority of cases, employers, managers or HR administrators will ask for a business case to be presented to justify the expenditure. A perfectly reasonable request, given how tight all budgets are these days, never mind ones for training.
Even companies with thought leadership capabilities, who regularly invest in the professional and personal development of their employees, request business cases. Why?Because they want to base their decision (yes or no) on facts and evidence. What they don’t want is to pour money into a project which turns out to be wasteful, poor quality or with little benefits in return.
From a student perspective though, the thought of having to prepare a business case is enough to prevent them taking their request any further.
Time to demystify the ‘dreaded’ business case then! Have a look at this helpful graphic which summarises what you should include in a business case.
Let’s be clear about the goal of a business case. A business case is a document you put together to provide decision makers with quality information to assess the merits of a project, programme or in this case, professional development request. The business case can range from a few paragraphs to a couple of pages depending on the amount of the investment and potential risks or benefits to the company.
In its most simple form, a business case simply summarises what you plan to do, why you plan to do it and whether any (cheaper) alternatives exist. It can be helpful to ask the person with authority to approve your request, what they would expect to see in the business case, the main headings or types of costs.
There are plenty of sample business cases for training requests available online. The important thing is to think about why you want to undertake a professional course and genuinely, consider how you believe it can and will make a difference to your professional role and the company who you are asking to pay for your course fees.
We believe that there are many reasons why you would choose to study with us. If you would like help putting together a business case, get in touch using our Contact Us form, we know why we’re good and we’d be happy to share those reasons with you!
Here’s a summary:
