What happens if we don’t and they stay?
Learning & Development is a crucial part of career progression, it’s easy for employees to fall into a rut of the same old tasks every day and not put any thought into your future, we develop a comfortable working environment so change becomes a distant memory, after-all humans are naturally lazy.
That distant memory pops back up though…. staleness develops in the workplace and an employee gets bored, the itch develops and is suddenly an itch to jump ship and look for something fresh. This is where Learning & Development fits in and should be applied to companies of all sizes, it’s a prevention of sorts.
Going back and looking at my years of being a developer across several companies it was rare for my employer to offer a solid L&D plan and even rarer for me to keep on top of the task of finding what’s new and what I could attend. I feel that companies can easily dismiss the idea of regular L&D due to cost of courses and losing the employee for day/s, but the end result will be happier employees that are guaranteed to stick around for longer.
Some of the L&D we offer at Carsguide within the Product and Technology team:
- Dedicated budget for training which can be spent on just about anything.
- Subscriptions to online courses: Drupalize.me, Laracasts, Udemy
- Regular attendance to certification courses e.g. AWS, CSM, CSPO
- Regular meetup attendance
- Brown bags hosted by employees and externals
Recently I attended AxisAgile — Certified Scrum Master Training (CSM), a 2 day information packed training session. This course covers a lot more than the basics of Scrum & Agile diving deep into hands on activities and table discussions whilst being presented in an easy to understand yet professional way. I came back to work with a wealth of knowledge and a fresh outlook on what I can provide to the company.
I’ve compiled a list of helpful links to for those out there who may be in the dark, enjoy!
Courses
https://www.coursera.org - 2000+ courses from schools like Stanford and Yale - no application required. Build career skills in data science, computer science, business, and more.
https://generalassemb.ly - Master new skills in design, marketing, technology, and data — online or at our campuses around the world.
https://www.axisagile.com.au -Scrum Alliance Certified Agile Training. Scrum coaching and consulting
https://www.edx.org/ - EdX offers free online courses and classes. Find the latest MOOC from the world’s best universities including MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, UT and others. Topics include business, computer science, finance, history, literature, math, science, statistics and more.
Certifications
Industry recognized certifications
https://aws.amazon.com/certification/
https://www.axisagile.com.au
Certified Scrum Master - Certified Scrum Product Owner
https://developers.googleblog.com/2017/09/introducing-mobile-web-specialist.html
https://developers.google.com/training/certification/mobile-web-specialist/
Online Resources
Meetups
Web
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/drupalsydney/ - Drupal Sydney Meetup
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/PHP-Laravel-Framework-Sydney/ - PHP Laravel Framework Sydney
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/SydCSS/ - Sydney CSS Meetup
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/SydJS-J/ - Sydney’s SydJS’ community of entry level JavaScript Developers
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Sydney-Developer-Drinkups/ - This group is for Developers who want a casual drink with like-minded folks. All skill levels and disciplines welcome (the geekier the better). Share stories, chat about the latest framework, get help on your project, just drink beer, or dive deep into philosophical topics such as “Are cats actually better than dogs?”! Bring friends, invite people, and have fun!
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Sydney-Coding-Bunkai/ - A Coding Dojo is an informal gathering of coders that uses programming challenges, games, mobbing and ping pong sparring to improve their skills and understanding in a friendly environment.
Mobile
https://www.meetup.com/Android-Australia-User-Group-Sydney/events/241902897/?_locale=en-AU - Monthly meetup at Atlassian with drinks and food
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/sydneycocoaheads/ - CocoaHeads is a group devoted to discussion of Apple Computer’s Cocoa and CocoaTouch Frameworks, Objective-C and Swift programming, for iOS and MacOS. During monthly meetings, members present on their projects and offer tutorials on various programming topics. Sydney CocoaHeads meets on the THIRD Thursday of every month at the offices of Atlassian in Sydney’s CBD.
DevOps
Testing
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Sydney-Testers/ - Sydney Testers is about smarter software testing. We are a group of people with a focus to improve testing for Sydney. We operate under a shared set of values and principles. We seek to practice high-value testing rather than so-called “best practice”.
Misc
http://fishburners.org/sydney-coworking-space#startup-events
Fishburners is a not-for-profit charity dedicated to creating highly scalable Australian tech startups, through inspiration, collection and connection to support.
Courses
https://www.coursera.org - 2000+ courses from schools like Stanford and Yale - no application required. Build career skills in data science, computer science, business, and more.
https://generalassemb.ly - Master new skills in design, marketing, technology, and data — online or at our campuses around the world.
https://www.axisagile.com.au -Scrum Alliance Certified Agile Training. Scrum coaching and consulting
https://www.edx.org/ - EdX offers free online courses and classes. Find the latest MOOC from the world’s best universities including MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, UT and others. Topics include business, computer science, finance, history, literature, math, science, statistics and more.
Certifications
Industry recognized certifications
https://aws.amazon.com/certification/
https://www.axisagile.com.au
Certified Scrum Master - Certified Scrum Product Owner
https://developers.googleblog.com/2017/09/introducing-mobile-web-specialist.html
https://developers.google.com/training/certification/mobile-web-specialist/
Online Resources
https://drupalize.me
https://www.codecademy.com
https://laracasts.com
https://www.udacity.com/
https://www.udemy.com/
https://www.pluralsight.com
https://tutsplus.com/
https://linuxacademy.com/
https://www.codeschool.com/
Meetups
Web
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/drupalsydney/ - Drupal Sydney Meetup
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/PHP-Laravel-Framework-Sydney/ - PHP Laravel Framework Sydney
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/SydCSS/ - Sydney CSS Meetup
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/SydJS-J/ - Sydney’s SydJS’ community of entry level JavaScript Developers
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Sydney-Developer-Drinkups/ - This group is for Developers who want a casual drink with like-minded folks. All skill levels and disciplines welcome (the geekier the better). Share stories, chat about the latest framework, get help on your project, just drink beer, or dive deep into philosophical topics such as “Are cats actually better than dogs?”! Bring friends, invite people, and have fun!
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Sydney-Coding-Bunkai/ - A Coding Dojo is an informal gathering of coders that uses programming challenges, games, mobbing and ping pong sparring to improve their skills and understanding in a friendly environment.
Mobile
https://www.meetup.com/Android-Australia-User-Group-Sydney/events/241902897/?_locale=en-AU - Monthly meetup at Atlassian with drinks and food
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/sydneycocoaheads/ - CocoaHeads is a group devoted to discussion of Apple Computer’s Cocoa and CocoaTouch Frameworks, Objective-C and Swift programming, for iOS and MacOS. During monthly meetings, members present on their projects and offer tutorials on various programming topics. Sydney CocoaHeads meets on the THIRD Thursday of every month at the offices of Atlassian in Sydney’s CBD.
DevOps
Testing
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Sydney-Testers/ - Sydney Testers is about smarter software testing. We are a group of people with a focus to improve testing for Sydney. We operate under a shared set of values and principles. We seek to practice high-value testing rather than so-called “best practice”.
Misc
http://fishburners.org/sydney-coworking-space#startup-events
Fishburners is a not-for-profit charity dedicated to creating highly scalable Australian tech startups, through inspiration, collection and connection to support.
Courses
https://www.coursera.org - 2000+ courses from schools like Stanford and Yale - no application required. Build career skills in data science, computer science, business, and more.
https://generalassemb.ly - Master new skills in design, marketing, technology, and data — online or at our campuses around the world.
https://www.axisagile.com.au -Scrum Alliance Certified Agile Training. Scrum coaching and consulting
https://www.edx.org/ - EdX offers free online courses and classes. Find the latest MOOC from the world’s best universities including MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, UT and others. Topics include business, computer science, finance, history, literature, math, science, statistics and more.
Certifications
Industry recognized certifications
https://aws.amazon.com/certification/
https://www.axisagile.com.au
Certified Scrum Master - Certified Scrum Product Owner
https://developers.googleblog.com/2017/09/introducing-mobile-web-specialist.html
https://developers.google.com/training/certification/mobile-web-specialist/
Online Resources
https://drupalize.me
https://www.codecademy.com
https://laracasts.com
https://www.udacity.com/
https://www.udemy.com/
https://www.pluralsight.com
https://tutsplus.com/
https://linuxacademy.com/
https://www.codeschool.com/
Meetups
Web
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/drupalsydney/ - Drupal Sydney Meetup
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/PHP-Laravel-Framework-Sydney/ - PHP Laravel Framework Sydney
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/SydCSS/ - Sydney CSS Meetup
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/SydJS-J/ - Sydney’s SydJS’ community of entry level JavaScript Developers
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Sydney-Developer-Drinkups/ - This group is for Developers who want a casual drink with like-minded folks. All skill levels and disciplines welcome (the geekier the better). Share stories, chat about the latest framework, get help on your project, just drink beer, or dive deep into philosophical topics such as “Are cats actually better than dogs?”! Bring friends, invite people, and have fun!
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Sydney-Coding-Bunkai/ - A Coding Dojo is an informal gathering of coders that uses programming challenges, games, mobbing and ping pong sparring to improve their skills and understanding in a friendly environment.
Mobile
https://www.meetup.com/Android-Australia-User-Group-Sydney/events/241902897/?_locale=en-AU - Monthly meetup at Atlassian with drinks and food
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/sydneycocoaheads/ - CocoaHeads is a group devoted to discussion of Apple Computer’s Cocoa and CocoaTouch Frameworks, Objective-C and Swift programming, for iOS and MacOS. During monthly meetings, members present on their projects and offer tutorials on various programming topics. Sydney CocoaHeads meets on the THIRD Thursday of every month at the offices of Atlassian in Sydney’s CBD.
DevOps
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/AWS-Sydney/
Testing
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Sydney-Testers/ - Sydney Testers is about smarter software testing. We are a group of people with a focus to improve testing for Sydney. We operate under a shared set of values and principles. We seek to practice high-value testing rather than so-called “best practice”.
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Sydney-Test-Automation-Meetup/
Misc
http://fishburners.org/sydney-coworking-space#startup-events
Fishburners is a not-for-profit charity dedicated to creating highly scalable Australian tech startups, through inspiration, collection and connection to support.