Get Your Boss’s Stamp of Approval – Attend NextGen 2015!

Need help getting approval? Uneasy about approaching your supervisor? Unsure of the budget situation?

We’ve got you covered. If you have not already, make sure to check out the Approval Toolkit.

Below, we have written out a sample email you can customize and send to your supervisor.

Everyone needs to learn how to best communicate using various modes of communication. Written communication is a fundamental competency that is required to advance. Important task: how to make the case for what you want.

Hello [boss],

I’d like to attend training courses at the Next Generation of Government Training Summit (nextgengovt.com) on July 20-21st at the Renaissance Downtown in Washington DC and would like your approval.

I know training isn’t always granted, which is why I’ve seriously thought this through. I believe this training will significantly enhance my abilities as a member of this team. Here are a few reasons why I believe I should attend:

• NextGen is designed specifically for Gen X & Y leaders. The entire schedule is built by an advisory board of SES leaders and motivated and passionate government employees
• It is Cost-effective and time-effective training that would replace multiple courses & thousands of dollars of training
• The last five years, NextGen has been OPM-approved as all sessions are mapped to OPM executive core qualifications. The 2015 summit will be determined in April.

More specifically, this training will help me do my job better in the following ways: [insert 3 sessions as they pertain to your training needs; below is an example]

1) Presentation Skills – A large part of my job is presenting my work and analysis to senior management. I would love to improve these presentations both in terms of PowerPoint skills and public speaking skills. There are sessions on presentations and public speaking I’d attend to learn practical tips for sharing ideas with others through presentations. In the sessions we will cover selection and use of presentation tools as well as basic public speaking and persuasion tips.

2) Time and Project Management – I’m excited to have so many great projects to work on. I would love to improve my ability to manage my time across projects and deliver great projects on-time and within budget. There will be a session titled: “Project Management Best Practices″. This session will teach participants how some project managers have taken this responsibility and are helping lead important change efforts in government by implementing best practices to quickly deliver solutions.

3) Lessons learned from Other Agencies – For my current assignments, I know there are other agencies doing similar work and I’d love to learn and leverage their best practices. During NextGen, there are opportunities for me to have one-on-one conversations to gain insight and build relationships in an intimate setting. I will be able to bring these connections and lessons learned back to our agency.

After the summit, I plan to write-up an analysis of the sessions I attend and key takeaways for our team. I can also provide a short briefing in our weekly team meeting.

The cost to attend the training is $785 (before June 11). The course is two days where I’ll learn a variety of topics that normally would take weeks of training and thousands of dollars.  Based on the level of learning, I think this is a good value; similar trainings such as a course on “Time Management” at Learning Tree are upwards of $1,500.

Thank you for considering my request. If you would like to discuss further, please let me know when you are available this week.

Thank you!
[signed]

For more information on The Next Generation of Government Training Summit 2015 please contact the event director ([email protected]).