Personal Education

We offer a budget to every VSHNeer for personal education because we believe that well-educated VSHNeers can provide the best services for VSHN and VSHN’s customers. Learning is life-long work, as new technology, processes and methodologies appear all the time and must be learned.

There are two different types of personal education, each of which has its own set of rules.

Individual Education

If a VSHNeer wants to learn a new subject for personal growth and interest, the following applies:

  • Budget: 5 days and CHF 4000.00 per calendar year per VSHNeer.

  • The amount isn’t cumulative (doesn’t sum-up if not used).

    • If an education spans across more than one year, the budget can be used over multiple years for the same education.

  • There is no deduction in this budget for VSHNeers working part-time.

  • If a VSHNeer quits during the calendar year, a pro-rata payback is asked by VSHN depending on the already used budget.

  • There is a pro-rata deduction of the available budget, depending on the start date of the working contract with VSHN (applies to the first year).

  • The education must have a tangible and visible benefit for VSHN to be considered, see below.

VSHN sees the personal education budget as an investment in the personal development of our VSHNeers. Therefore, you can use your education budget already during your probation period, while you are no longer entitled to it during the notice period, should you decide to leave VSHN one day. If a VSHNeer has already made a request for Individual Budget, PeopleOps will evaluate whether it will still be paid. This decision will be based on how the education can still benefit VSHN.

What qualifies as Individual Education?

Category Description Format & Constraints Decision

Professional, role-specific further training

Technical or otherwise role-specific education, that helps the VSHNeer or their Team to better fulfil their responsibilities.

  • Technology, product or other specific trainings and courses, online or in-person.

  • Benefit for the role or for the team needs to be understood in the team.

VSHNeer gets consent in the team (often based on a skill matrix or similar), then People Ops checks via the Team’s Team Facilitator / Scrum Master.

Personal Coaching

Coaching the helps the VSHNeer do develop personally, as a VSHNeer and in their role.

  • Coach has to be a professional and certified (SCA or equivalent) coach, work psychologist.

  • Usually 1-on-1 sessions with a professional coach, booked by People Operations or the VSHNeer.

  • The Coach is usually selected by the VSHNeer, People Operations can help to find one.

  • Limited 2 session of 1.5h per month and up to CHF 300/h.

People Operations makes a confidential assessment of whether external support is necessary or if other solutions are accessible.

Role relevant soft skills & personal development

VSHN’s work culture demands significantly more from each individual in terms of self-responsibility, leadership skills, emotional intelligence, communication, conflict handling, etc. These skills and qualities can be learned and trained and will greatly help VSHNeers and the VSHN system and practices to work.

  • Usually courses and trainings in these topics, intervision, workshops, group coaching

  • Specific meetups on these topics.

PeopleOps checks based on feedback from peers of the VSHNeers, whether they would see it as helpful.

Conferences and Meetups

Just going to conferences or meetups (including those organized by VSHN) alone is not education (nor work time) - same as above, we have to understand if there is a “good chance” to learn something relevant or build up the network of “experts”. Benefit in the role or for the team needed - topic should directly be role or team relevant (technical, methods / practices or soft skills).

Out of Scope

  • Attending conferences or meetups as speaker (as VSHN). That is normal work with a clear goal, normal expenses rules apply.

  • Networking to create (customer) leads as decided in marketing, sales or as community measures. That is normal work with a clear goal, normal expenses rules apply.

How to request individual education

  1. Talk to your Team about the subject, time frame, and cost of the education. The team gives a preliminary approval, required for PeopleOps to take a final decision.

  2. Write an E-Mail to PeopleOps with the following information:

    • Description of the education

    • Required budget (money and time)

    • Purpose

    • Brief description of the benefits for VSHN based on the categories on this handbook page

    • Dates and time

  3. PeopleOps will confirm the approval and will consider the budget and applicability.

  4. PeopleOps takes a final decision (go / no go) and communicates it to the interested parties.

There might be a waiting list, based on budget usage across all VSHNeers - usually not an issue.

If the decision is positive, enjoy the training and learn a lot!

VSHN Requested Education

When there is a business need to get VSHNeers trained for some new technology or skill, the following applies:

  • VSHN pays the course fee and grants the time needed for the course (excl. for example individual learning).

  • VSHN may require a contractual employment commitment for two years, (to be decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on the type of education) starting at the end of the education.

    • If the VSHNeer leaves earlier, a pro-rata pay-back (on the money, not in time) will be requested.

Possible reasons which can lead to the business to request certain education paths:

  • Education and certification for partnership levels.

  • Education out of VSHN’s (strategic) need, missing needed skills.

  • Training required within the teams/job description (for example: CKA, AWS, and S3 courses)

This is tracked and reviewed as VIP-141