{"654053":{"#nid":"654053","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Staff Council Announces Tuition Reimbursement Assistance Program Expansion","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EJan. 31, 2022: The launch of the Staff Tuition Reimbursement Assistance Program (STRAP) expansion, STRAP-Certifications, or STRAP-C, is on hold until further notice. This story has been updated to reflect this development.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/staffcouncil.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EStaff Council\u003C\/a\u003E Employee Engagement Committee partnered with Georgia Tech Human Resources (GTHR) to expand the Institute\u0026rsquo;s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/hr.gatech.edu\/staff-tuition-reimbursement-assistance-program\u0022\u003EStaff Tuition Reimbursement Assistance Program\u003C\/a\u003E (STRAP) to provide reimbursement for professional certifications related to an employee\u0026rsquo;s job functions on campus.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile STRAP provides partial tuition reimbursement for degrees, technical diplomas, and certificates that offer letter grades and credit hours to classified Tech employees at any accredited private institution, STRAP-Certifications, or STRAP-C, will reimburse\u0026nbsp;for professional certifications. The expansion will cover up to $750 toward a staff member\u0026rsquo;s exam costs every other year.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;The Staff Tuition Reimbursement Assistance Program\u0026nbsp;is important to Tech employees because it offers another layer of education assistance outside of TAP\u0026rdquo; [the University System of Georgia\u0026rsquo;s educational assistance \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/benefits.usg.edu\/work-life\/tuition-assistance-program\u0022\u003ETuition Assistance Program\u003C\/a\u003E], Candice Bovian, program manager for GTHR and 2022 Staff Council chair, said. \u0026ldquo;Over time, it became clear that staff also wanted the choice of pursuing a professional certification.\u0026quot;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026quot;The Council worked very closely with the Office of General Counsel and GTHR,\u0026quot; Bovian continued. \u0026quot;We\u0026nbsp;heard what our colleagues wanted, advocated for them, and made this a reality.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EByron Fitch, senior consultant with Georgia Tech Strategic Consulting,\u0026nbsp;added, \u0026quot;We are very grateful to Kelly Fox [executive vice president of Administration and Finance], Kim Harrington [chief human resources officer, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/af.gatech.edu\/new-af-leadership-position-focus-workplace-culture\u0022\u003Esoon to be Administration and Finance chief of staff and associate vice president for Special Initiatives\u003C\/a\u003E], and Kelly Cross [Institute policy manager] for supporting Staff Council with\u0026nbsp;this effort. We are\u0026nbsp;excited to be able to contribute to staff\u0026nbsp;development with this expansion.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFitch served as 2020 Staff Council chair and chair of the Employee Engagement Committee in 2019 when STRAP expansion discussions began.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EPrevious STRAP guidelines did not provide reimbursement for staff seeking professional certifications and designations that did not offer credit hours and letter grades. As a result, they were responsible for paying out of pocket for professional certifications \u0026mdash; or forced to forfeit altogether.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBased on research and benchmarking conducted by Staff Council, the average cost to pursue a professional certification is $750. This amount served as the proposed threshold that staffers could leverage for potential reimbursement. (The allotment will cover exam fees only.)\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESTRAP-C applications must be submitted by the STRAP deadline for reimbursement of a passed exam.\u0026nbsp;The application period will open 30 days prior to the deadline.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Staff Council Employee Engagement Committee has partnered with Georgia Tech Human Resources to expand the Institute\u0026rsquo;s Staff Tuition Reimbursement Assistance Program, or STRAP, to provide reimbursement for professional certifications.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The Staff Council Employee Engagement Committee has partnered with Georgia Tech Human Resources to expand the Institute\u2019s Staff Tuition Reimbursement Assistance Program to provide reimbursement for professional certifications."}],"uid":"34932","created_gmt":"2022-01-04 21:56:01","changed_gmt":"2022-02-10 16:39:45","author":"Courtney Hill","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2022-01-10T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2022-01-10T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"654054":{"id":"654054","type":"image","title":"Staff Council worked with Georgia Tech Human Resources to expand the Staff Tuition Reimbursement Assistance Program","body":null,"created":"1641333778","gmt_created":"2022-01-04 22:02:58","changed":"1641333778","gmt_changed":"2022-01-04 22:02:58","alt":"","file":{"fid":"248076","name":"N21C10001 WW_P2_148-Web Use - 1,000px.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/N21C10001%20WW_P2_148-Web%20Use%20-%201%2C000px.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/N21C10001%20WW_P2_148-Web%20Use%20-%201%2C000px.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":421753,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/N21C10001%20WW_P2_148-Web%20Use%20-%201%2C000px.jpg?itok=TDNk2rA8"}}},"media_ids":["654054"],"groups":[{"id":"311541","name":"Staff Council"},{"id":"64319","name":"Administration and Finance"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"167018","name":"staff"},{"id":"173556","name":"tap\/strap"},{"id":"171233","name":"STRAP"},{"id":"171275","name":"Staff Tuition Reimbursement Assistance Program"},{"id":"48051","name":"tuition reimbursement"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJ. Candice Bovian\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\ncandice.bovian@ohr.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}