This year I’ve been given £500 to spend on any kind of training or personal development at work. Some colleagues use this for clearly related professional things (like short courses) and others for less obviously related things (like improv classes).
I’ve got lots of qualifications already, so I’m more interested in the tangentially useful and interesting things I might do, mainly for fun, but also maybe for life/work. Does anyone have any good ideas?
(FYI I’m a senior research manager at a consultancy)
29 comments
Motorbike licence.
Drugs
Ninja or assassin school
I was in a similar situation years ago and paid for a nightschool language course (Spanish) and greatly enjoyed it!
I second ninja school
Cocaine and hookers obviously
Fencing.
I had a similar thing at my work, where we could put in a funding bid for training and development out of the normal scope of the internal L&D provision.
A few colleagues put in bids for things like Prince2 and got turned down, so I figured sod it – let’s go big, see what I can get away with.
I found a 2 day conference in Toronto that kinda sorta fitted with my role, connected with a few people in the same industry as me in Toronto and built a 7 day trip around attending the conference and meeting with these folks. Roughly £6k in flights, accom and conference tickets which got approved! Think I spent 3 hours in meetings and maybe 10 hours at the conference. The rest was sightseeing.
So… Find a conference somewhere sunny and go on a jolly?
Voice training
I would become a pat tester and then charge the company to test everything in the office.
A first aid course may look professional but if you look at specialist courses you could do mountain rescue first aid in the lakes or alps, alternatively I think the higher end diving courses include some first aid elements.
I can teach you some life lessons for that money.
Music lessons? Photography? How far can you push it?
I’m in a consultancy and have found my lack of desire and ability to play golf a handicap.
Depending on where you live, a sailing course is fun and can improve your leadership qualities
Prince 2
Hire cameraman/editor for a day and put together the most bangin’ 80’s rocky training montage the world has ever seen. Post online to millions of views, raking in obscene ad revenue. Pay back the £500 in the first 24 hours, retire a millionaire.
Or a first aid course, that’s often useful
Hookers and blow?
Wine tasting with a spa
Cookery classes
Try welding lessons or another creative training course…
Golf lessons
By a curious coincidence, I offer a course in spotting scams, for which I charge a mere £499.95…
A lot of companies give you extra money for being first aid qualified, it’s a £200 bonus every year we’re I work.
I had similar a few years ago.
the first year I tried snowboarding lessons. Next year I did some DIY courses such as bricklaying, plastering, plumbing and electrics. All skills I still us to this day.
Pick something new that can add value to your life, or is something you have an interest in.
You won’t regret it.
Mindfulness and nlp to help you calm, settle, and focus to enable you to finish one task well and focus on the next challenge
Go get first aid trained, but for outdoor activities. Then take the team on a day trip where you can use it (well hopefully not use it but you can explain how it’s helpful for the whole team.)
What do you want to be when you grow up? Seriously, what is that dream? We might be able to give you pointers how to get there
I had a similar thing recently – £250 for some sort of training.
I went on a sea kayaking course.
Slutboi training.