Things To Look For Before Choosing A Grant Writing Certification For Your Employees
Grants can be a reliable and lucrative source of revenue that pays for programs, projects, and at times for overhearing as well. The ability to seek grants should be a part of a company's revenue stream.
Grant writing is easy and takes a lot of experience before you can master the skill. They are competitive, so you have to prove why your grants are more beneficial than the others.
You have to convince the funder that you will spend their money well and provide them with good returns shortly. You should be able to find the sweet spot which will help you in your cause. It is essential for those not used to writing grants to subscribe to a grant writing course. There are many certifications available these days.
A grant writing course will help them to learn and identify the right strategy. This way, they will attract potential clients and be successful in achieving a few grants.
A grant certification will make a statement that your employees can achieve the highest level of success and provide other benefits.
Here are the points that you need to keep in mind before choosing the best grant writing certification:
1. Validation
One of the essential aspects that you have to check out is the validation of the certification. A good certification affirms one's level of professional expertise and also regarding a particular aspect. There are many certifications available these days.
But, not every one of them will help your employees to create the same impact. Many certifications last for months and have been divided into different aspects. Such grant writing certifications reflect the in-depth understanding a person has acquired over time.
2. Education
The main idea of pursuing a grant writing certification is to learn and educate oneself, right? It should provide an opportunity to the employees to enrich their experience and add to their knowledge. What is the point of pursuing certification if it does not provide your employees with the right knowledge?
There's no benefit in that. Your goal should be to help every employee to develop their skills and improve their abilities in that field. Many times a grant certification can be the measuring stick to identify one's expertise in the industry.
3. Motivation
Grant writing certifications should provide your employees with the ability to make the right decisions, follow them and deliver the right results. Since a person has achieved a particular certification, it should prove that they are serious about achieving the right skill and take their career to a new level.
The certification should motivate an employee to keep learning and improve their skills in the field and come out as one of its best. It should be easy to learn and highly engaging.
4. Skill Gain
While selecting the right GD&T Training, you should check if the certification is providing your employees with the ability to polish their skills. The proper certification can help a business train its employees to find and develop new skills; in this case, it is grant writing and relevant knowledge.
The course should focus on the grant processes and be engaging enough to address any query that the employees come up with. Any certification that does not focus on skill-based learning is not worth the money at all.
5. Quality of the Certification
Though there are many grant writing certifications available in 2021, not every one of them is beneficial for your company employees. Do not compromise on the quality. The top and most popular grant writing courses are more expensive than others.
It is for a reason. They come with high-end study materials and are presided over by the best teaching faculty.
These courses are curated specially to deliver the best resources to all the employees. The course should cover topics like writing campaigns, diversification, organizing grant writing teams, understanding funders' wishes and budgets, and finding collaborators.
6. Timings & Duration
Since your employees are full-time workers, you should also check out the timings and duration of the course. You cannot possibly add a course to their schedule that takes up 2-3 hours frequently during a full working day. The timings of this course should be flexible & convenient for all the employees who are going to pursue this certification.
You can consult with your employees and identify the best timing for pursuing it. You can't afford to disrupt your day-to-day tasks & activities if your employees take it up.
7. Practical Experience
A brilliant grant writing certification will focus on what the employee should do and what they should not. This is achievable by encouraging more practical experience.
The course makers must ask the employees to practice writing grants & submit them at a given deadline. They will check and review each grant written by them.
This will help the employees to understand their mistakes and how to improve their writing. The more practical experience your employees are going to get, the better it is.
8. Motto of the Certification
Before opting for any particular grant writing certification, it is mandatory to decide why you need it for your employees. Do you want them only to learn another skill? Or can this certification make their career better and help them earn more money?
If they want to be the subject matter experts, then grant certification in new technologies can help them be more fruitful for your company. Make sure that the certification you are choosing is aligning with your career.
So, these are the top things you have to look for when choosing a grant writing certification for your employees.
Final Words
Effective grant writing can prove to be a game-changer for your business. It can bring a brand new range of opportunities that will help you work on your goals & achieve new targets shortly. The courses are divided into different sections: grant writing basics, writing a grant proposal, and funding searching.
Identify which aspects your employees need to focus on and talk it out with them. Only then can you actually make the most of a grant writing certification.