Educational Programs at FST

by Dean L. Groves, PE, M.ASCE, Senior Principal, Fay, Spofford & Thorndike, Inc. (FST)

 

I am a long time advocate of continuing education in our profession and have worked to offer several programs at our company in an attempt to encourage and reward those who partake of this employee benefit.

 

As a senior principal at Fay, Spofford & Thorndike (FST), I saw the need to develop and implement programs to incentivize our employees to continue their education and invest in their professional development. I know how difficult it can be to get an advanced degree while working full time. (I may have set a new record in achieving my master’s degree in civil engineering when it took me 10 years to complete a seven year maximum program at Northeastern University!) But I had a supervisor who was a real mentor to me, in many ways, and kept at it. It made a real difference for me.

 

At FST, we modified our Educational Assistance program to be less restrictive, and are now seeing employees enrolled in BS and MS programs in engineering, as well as a few in MBA programs. There is an annual tuition reimbursement limit per employee based upon the Internal Revenue Code, and we pay 100% for A’s and B’s and 80% for C’s. There are currently about 12 employees who are taking advantage of this program. We also offer interest free loans to the employees to cover their costs of their courses.

 

Professional and career development is strongly encouraged at FST. Obviously, as a professional services firm, we want our employees to be registered professionals in their field, and certain states require continuing education to be documented for renewal. We pay for review courses for Professional Engineer or Engineer-in-Training examinations, and other similar professional licenses or certifications under the Company’s “Professional Development Policy—Conferences, Seminars and Non-Credit Training.” We also pay professional registrations of our employees outside their home state, and we pay for continuing education for renewals. As you would expect, some of the educational opportunities are achieved through programs offered by ASCE, BSCES, ACEC/MA, APWA and others.

 

Last year, through the efforts of a few members of our staff who have been duly dubbed the Inter-Disciplinary Education Committee (or IDEC, for short), we implemented a monthly luncheon series of presentations that are made by staff members to other company employees, where the presenters are given the opportunity to make technical presentations in front of a somewhat “friendly” audience. Those in the audience ask questions of the presenter, to help expand on a point or elaborate on an issue. Some of the seasoned staff are able to provide coaching and everyone provides encouragement. It is a raving success, with many of the presentations being given a second time because of the level of interest. It also helps to keep all practice areas of our business informed about what is going on “across the hall” or in other geographic locations. We are fortunate that we can videoconference in all of our branch offices, so it is terrific for team building as well. The program costs (a few pizzas and sodas each month) are insignificant especially in comparison to the benefits.