Your Goals and Your Employer's Needs Could be Aligned. How Will You Know?

There are many reasons why going back to school makes sense, but your reasons are the ones that matter. Understanding your why is fundamental to succeeding in acquiring the new skills to advance your career.

Whether your “why” is a better lifestyle, gaining a competitive edge on other career seekers or advancers, buying your first home or starting or expanding your family, focusing on your career development goals and the education required to meet them can be the key that unlocks your potential. 

There is clear evidence to support the relationship between education and career advancement.  For example, career outlook data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows the correlation between higher education and higher earnings. According to April 2024 BLS data, workers aged 25 and over with a bachelor’s degree had substantially higher median weekly earnings and were much less likely to be unemployed in 2023 than workers with only a high school diploma.

Education is linked with performance, self-confidence and job satisfaction. Here are some key findings of a 2023 poll of more than 1,000 employees:

·        Consider education to be essential for success at work: 87%

·        Believe better education leads to increased job satisfaction: 81%

·        Feel proud of their achievements as a college degree holder: 87%

·        Believe that more education leads to better job performance: 84%

Want more real-world evidence of the value of education? Take a look at employer’s online job postings for tech, business and healthcare roles. As qualifications, they often specify a college degree, industry-recognized certifications, or both. By talking to your manager, you may learn what career-focused skills and certifications could help you qualify for opportunities at your company. By “skilling up,” you could improve your potential earning power while contributing to their future growth and success.

Here at DeVry University, we understand the value of any degree or certificate program is determined by how well it is aligned with the skills employers need to compete and grow. You might say this is the employer’s “why,” establishing the common ground where workers’ career goals and their employers’ organizational goals meet.

What’s the best time to discuss your educational goals with your manager? If you don’t want opportunities for advancement to pass you by, sooner is better than later. Look for opportunities to introduce the subject in a regularly scheduled one-to-one session or performance review where you’ll have the manager’s undivided attention.

Keep in mind that if your manager has no awareness of your career goals, they may have little or no reason to bring it up, so it’s up to you to “break the ice” and remain proactive. Be prepared with questions about how the company’s operations may be changing or evolving and any advancement opportunities this may create. 

Another approach is to learn as much as you can about the skills needed to meet your career goals and begin the discussion by suggesting how those new skills could also be beneficial to the company. 

When it comes to your career advancement, the importance of education cannot be overstated. It is essential to acquire the new skills to advance to higher-paying position within your current employer, or to continue your education to keep current with the demands of rapidly advancing technologies in artificial intelligence, analytics, cyber security and other areas.

At DeVry, we offer a wide variety of degree and certificate programs that can be completed 100% online, helping you to balance your commitment to education with your work schedule and family commitments. Working with your employer, we can establish a learning pathway that will help you acquire new skills while meeting your company’s need to harness new technologies and remain competitive.

Our new downloadable guide, Stepping up: How to Talk Education and Career Advancement with Your Manager, offers helpful tips on how to approach this subject and begin a conversation that could represent a leap forward for your career and mutually benefit you and your employer.

Go ahead, download our guide, get those conversations started and continue your journey of personal and professional growth.