Staff development facilities

Summary
Study facilities support the professionalisation of employees. This page describes what facilities there are, with specific attention to master's programmes.

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Fontys ICT supports its employees in their professionalisation across the board. For all employees, the rights and obligations in Chapter O of the Collective Agreement for Universities of Applied Sciences (Cao-hbo) apply. This states: “Every employee with an employment contract starting at 0.4 fte - has a basic right of at least 40 hours annually to keep up his competence.”¹⁾ The same article states, “The employee determines how to use these hours to maintain his competence”.²⁾

The basic right of the collective labour agreement (CAO) has been increased to 80 hours for an appointment of 1.0 FTE (part-time in proportion). Because Fontys ICT considers the development of its staff essential, Fontys ICT makes additional training time available for colleagues with an appointment > 0.5 FTE. In total (including the basic entitlement), the training time is therefore 10% of the number of gross spendable hours. For lecturers, these (approximately) 80 extra hours per year (for appointments of 1.0 fte) must primarily be used to pass the MKO assessments. The employee decides for the most part how and when he uses these hours and discusses this in his development interview with his People Manager (PM). Here, the employee does not justify himself in terms of 'what the training has been', but in terms of employability for Fontys ICT and a contribution to the success of Fontys ICT.

To determine whether a course is facilitated by Fontys ICT, we use a prioritisation.

Prio 1: Qualifications necessary for the performance of the current function or role, e.g.:

• BKO
• MKO
• Mandatory certifications that are necessary for a certain role (think of in-house emergency response service (BHV) etc.)
• Professional training (staying up to date)

Prio 2: Qualifications that are highly desirable for the performance of the current function or role, consider:

• (First) master course (see below)
• Training courses from the Fontys professionalisation programme;
• Professional deepening (expanding knowledge)
• SKO/SKE
• Training in the area of personal leadership and professional and didactic skills
• Language training, such as English or Dutch.

Prio 3: Qualifications that are desirable in the context of the ambition and development of the employee, for example aimed at a future position or role within Fontys, as discussed in the development interview:

• Didactic training for educational support staff (OOP)
• (2nd) Masters/PhD - appropriate to the Fontys ICT field of work
• Coaching education/training
• Education/training for managers / project leaders
• professional retraining (to learn another role or to expand substantive expertise)

Prio 4: Qualifications that are desirable or necessary in the context of the employee's development aimed at a future position or role outside Fontys:

• Retraining

In many cases, Fontys ICT reimburses the costs of training. These costs include: registration fee, books, licenses, materials, travel and accommodation costs. Table 1 shows who decides on the training budget, based on amounts including VAT for the entire training, including additional costs.

Table 1
Decisions on the Fontys ICT training budget divided into categories on the basis of the level of expenditure and the priorities set in the staff development policy.

Study programmes shall be attended within the regular training time allotted. If additional training time is necessary, this is at the discretion of the Manager People. Exceptions to this are the additional training hours that are reimbursed by the Lecturer's Grant (Lerarenbeurs).

Because Fontys Hogeschoolen is subject to VAT (BTW), the costs for study programmes that are not exempt from VAT must be based on the costs including VAT.

For all professionalisation requests, a purchase request must be submitted before an employee can register for the study programme in question. In addition, for courses > € 2,000, a study agreement must be drawn up.

• An employee who wants to follow a master's programme discusses this with his People Manager (PM). The employee motivates his choice (how will the employee and Fontys ICT benefit from the intended master's) supplemented with information about the master's (in any case, this includes information about the duration, location, study load, costs, exit level, etc.);
• The employee always investigates whether it is possible to make use of a teacher's scholarship; he is responsible for application and justification; not being able to obtain a teacher's scholarship can be a reason for not granting permission (yet). The teacher's grant can be applied for annually at DUO in the period from 1 April up to and including 15 May. The teacher fills in the application form and agrees on the content and signature of the form with team HR via HR-Fontys ICT;
• The PM assesses (in consultation with the CE) whether the master's programme fits in with the desired core competences of the specialisation (if necessary, he may also examine whether it fits in with other specialisations);
• If the PM sees an important added value in the master's track, he/she submits the request, if necessary, to the PM's meeting and/or the management;
• The management decides on the allocation of study hours and the PM (see table) on the study costs;
• The agreements made are recorded in the study agreement.

• Each year the PM assesses whether the facilities as granted will be continued in the following year. In the development interview, the employee discusses the study progress. If the study progress is normal to good, the facilities will be continued;
• If there are circumstances as a result of which the study could stagnate and/or goals cannot be achieved, the teacher is expected to report this as soon as possible so that any additional arrangements can be made.
• As soon as the study has been completed, the employee will add his diploma to his education file in HR2Day.

• study fee agreement;
• Fontys Hub;
• Developing HR Portal.