Money Smarts, a series of articles, will
take aim at the common misconception most people can't
afford to go to school and that getting financial aid is
extremely hard to find and get. The Money Smarts series of
articles will show online students how to find, qualify
for, receive and pay off financial aid loans. Articles
will always point to the best articles, books, and Web
sites for further research. Where there's a will, there's
a way. These articles will show the way.
So, you tell your boss that 15 percent of all higher
education students are distance learners. You tell him
that eighty-four percent of four-year colleges will be
offering distance learning courses in 2002. And still,
he's not at all impressed with you getting an online
degree?
Here are nine compelling reasons why your employer
should be impressed and should help pay for your online
degree.
Distance learning:
- Keeps employees on top of changes in their industry,
profession and society and prepares them to take on
new or more complex roles in an organization.
- Means less personnel turnover. Retaining good people
means challenging and promoting them.
- Classes offer a much broader variety of perspectives
and issues that can be discussed than in traditional
classrooms. Distance learners are mostly older,
working adults from around the world, who have real
world experience to contribute to class discussions.
- Students must be self-motivated, organized and
self-directed. These abilities are highly transferable
to any job and should be prized by any employer.
- Programs are flexible. They are learner centered,
affording students more control of the pacing,
sequencing, and style of interaction of the learning
experience. This results in fewer employee absences,
less disruption of daily routines, less employee
dissatisfaction and increased productivity during
training period.
- Students bring back a much wider academic and global
perspective of their job, their industry and their
profession.
- Offers easy access to education and learning
resources that students would not have the time or
money to afford.
- Offers the company a chance to stay competitive in
ways other than simply reducing costs. Increased
employee skills may be directly applied to current
work.
- Cost the company less resulting in increased ROI for
the company's tuition reimbursement program.
~ David
W. Butler
Reprinted by permission of About.com Distance
Learning (http://www.distancelearn.about.com).
Nine Reasons Why Your Boss Should Pay For Your
Online Degree 
Federal Student Loans 
