Employee Training Compensation Guidelines

Portland Community College supports continuous learning and professional development. To ensure clarity and consistency across all employee classifications, the guidelines below outline how training hours are generally funded and compensated.

Summary of Funding Sources

Training Type Eligible Employee Groups Funding Source
Required Training All Employee Groups Regular Funding Source (or Designated Student Funding)
Optional Training Full-Time Faculty, Academic Professionals, Management, Confidential, & Classified Regular Funding Source
Optional Training Part-Time Faculty & Casual Employees Sponsoring Department or Unpaid
Required Training

Required training fulfills state or national compliance requirements. This also includes training that satisfies risk management (with additional training needs that are role-specific). Required training time is always paid from the employee’s regular funding source (or a special fiunding source in the case of student employees). 

Examples:

  • Required by the federal government: FERPA, Title IX
  • Required by PCC’s risk insurance: Incident & Accident Reporting Process
  • Required based on an individual job description: Driver Safety Training
Optional Training

Optional training supports your work and career progression but is not tied to any compliance or risk management requirements. Optional training is paid from the employee’s regular funding source for most employee groups. Part-time Faculty and Casual Employees will be paid by the department offering the training or they may attend unpaid if they would like.

Examples:

  • Offered Internally: New Employee Orientation, LinkedIn Learning Courses
  • Offered Externally: Conferences, Workshops

Part-Time Faculty and Casual employees should verify with their manager and the sponsoring department to confirm whether there is funding available for the training prior to attending (or they should plan to participate unpaid).

Special Notes
  • If a manager assigns optional training, the department pays for the time.
  • If an employee chooses optional training (such as a Linked-In Learning course unrelated to their job duties) on their own, they may attend unpaid on their own time.

If you have questions about PCC’s contractual, legal or risk management requirements, please reach out to talent-dev@pcc.edu.