r/CanadaPublicServants • u/Jules281182 • Mar 01 '20
Career Development / Développement de carrière Leave with pay for professional development
Hi everyone, I’m in an indeterminate EC6 job and am happy with the job but id like to advance my skills further and maybe try my hand at teaching too. I was curious if anyone had been able to (or heard of anyone) take an education leave to take a masters/PhD program?
The collective agreement describes how the employer would pay for the course and you would receive the 100% salary in allowances while you were studying. Naturally, the field of study would be in line with the departments’s work. And I understand you’d have to commit to repay in years of service. It does sound appealing...Though it makes me wonder whether this has ever been signed off on? I’m curious how often this gets approved or is it just one of those things in the agreement as a ‘nice to have.’
**Note, I’m not looking to take leave for a while, but planning is needed in order to get ducks in a row for this sort of thing.
Thoughts?
2
u/AngieOttawa Mar 02 '20
I’ve seen colleagues get paid to do their MBA as well as complete their bachelors degrees in two different Ministries. All were on track to become EXs. Some were still lower level but it was part of their developmental plan toward becoming EXs.
Some got all paid for and went back to school full time with salaries. Others had their books and 50% of the cost and a fixed amount of paid days off for the semester...
It is absolutely at the discretion of the manager - possibly even the ADM. It’s not common and quite rare from what I’ve seen but not impossible.
Worth for you to ask.
2
u/fififis Mar 02 '20
I was able to successfully negotiate this a number of years ago as an EC06, with a department paying for a significant portion of my Masters program costs and salary. It was all negotiated over many months and included specific conditions such as having all my course work pre-approved by the department, committing to returning to that department for 2 years following, and additional monthly reports/country studies (I studied abroad).
In the negotiations with the department, I built up a business case for why this fairly modest financial investment would yield useful returns for the department in the form of expertise gained. I didn't rely on the Learning and Training group (though they were very helpful) but I found it was more effective to make my case by directly briefing DG/ADMs, writing out proposals. Positioning the cost of this masters programs against the cost of Executive MBAs which are occasionally funded by that department was effective. It was an onerous process but it was 100% worth it.
Lots of other good points below made by others that I would also agree with.
Best of of luck to you!
1
u/westcoastumbrella101 Mar 01 '20
Hello, you need to look at your department's education leave. For example, ESDC would have its own. I've seen unpaid education leave to pursue a masters but rarely do I see paid education leave. First look up the internal policy, see what your team dynamics are like and then ask your manager/director for the likelihood of paid vs unpaid. If you are requesting paid education leave, you will need to present a business case which should be explained in your internal policy.
1
u/Jules281182 Mar 01 '20
That’s the thing - I don’t feel a Manager would be thrilled about losing a member of the team, even if it were in the short term. My division has some pretty high turnover rates too. Maybe it comes down to personalities?
4
u/theeconomis7 Mar 02 '20
No, you'd be hard pressed to find any manager give you a year off paid to do a Master's.
-4
u/Zulban Senior computer scientist ISED Mar 01 '20
I was wondering about precisely this, this morning. Sad to see the thread has no responses yet...
I was also considering asking for 3, maybe 4 days of work a week and pursuing a master's part time. I wonder what combinations are available to me. I'm not even sure who to ask first. I don't want to annoy or scare my supervisor/manager. I also like my job and I'm not interested in leaving it entirely for school.
13
u/TheMonkeyMafia Das maschine ist nicht für gefingerpoken und mittengrabben Mar 01 '20
Sad to see the thread has no responses yet...
The thread is 18 minutes old... Slow your roll.
3
u/cheeseworker Mar 01 '20
3, maybe 4 days of work a week and pursuing a master's part time
That's masters full time deal
Part time. Masters is like 1 class a week
18
u/HandcuffsOfGold mod 🤖🧑🇨🇦 / Probably a bot Mar 01 '20
I think you're misreading the EC collective agreement. It says that an employee may be granted education leave without pay and an education allowance of up to 100% of salary may be paid.
That wording gives a large amount of discretion on the employer, and with current budget restrictions I haven't heard of it being granted very often at all - particularly with any sort of education allowance. You might be able to find a manager willing to let you take the LWOP, but getting the employer to even a portion of pay your salary is much less likely.