“I Would Like To Learn…” Email Templates

Learning rarely gets a budget line, especially for small organizations.

Somehow, when you want to learn something, it has to be free? No, and in today’s economy, it is an expectation that an organization invests in its people.

However, you may have to ask in a way that the Powers That Be see the value of investing in you.

A few protips to take your “I Would Like To Learn” email up a notch:

  • Tie the learning outcomes to the organization making more money or losing less. That’s the holy grail.

    • “Me learning advanced Excel will allow me to be more efficient, allowing me to put out more TPS reports.”

  • Connect the learning to your career goals. Leaders love the feeling of helping you on your career journey. If you can sign up for a management course and you want to be a manager, say that!

    • “I would love to move my career into a management role. Since our organization does not currently offer management training internally, this management course will prepare me to continue working with this organization and support its growth.”

  • Answer the “Why Now” question with upcoming KPIs or strategic visions that leaders themselves have shared. You’re essentially saying, “I’m trying to follow your lead! Saying no means saying no to your own vision.”

    • "According to our Yearly Goals, we want to reduce customer churn by 10%. This Customer Service conference will allow me to bring industry best-practices to our organization to reach that goal.”

Workshop/Course Template

  • First name of person with budget authority

  • Personal area of professional development

  • Actions taken so far to self-educate

  • Behavior/skill you want to learn

  • Selling point of learning experience

  • Link to offer

  • Learning outcome that is relevant to the business and to you

  • Dollar value of the experience to the business

  • How that dollar value will be generated

  • Qualifications of the facilitator/organization

  • Testimonial or endorsement

  • Why Now reason

Hey [first name of someone with budget authority], I wanted to get your approval on something.

I’ve been learning a lot about [topic of interest] on my own. I’ve [joined mailing lists/attended a webinar/went to a meet-up] to get more experience, but I’ve found something that can help me take [behavior/demonstrable skill] to the next level.

[Biggest selling point of the learning experience]. Here’s a link to the offer: [link to offer]

I know we don’t typically have budget set aside for something like this, but this [course/class/workshop] will let me [learning outcome]. I think this could [save $/generate $] by [very specific reason], and that’s just what I can tell right now. I know there’s more value here because the [instructor/program/organization] has [qualifications] and has worked with similar organizations to ours such as [testimonial from a similar organization].

I’d love to talk more about this opportunity. Can we chat later today? There’s a [limited time offer/time-bound reason for doing this now].

-[your name]

Hi Jane, I wanted to get your approval on something.
I’ve been learning a lot about management skills on my own. I’ve joined a leadership Slack community, have been reading Good to Great, and recently attended a webinar to help me craft my personal management values, but I’ve found something that can help me take my team management to the next level.
After that webinar, the presenters offered a special 6-week course on remote management. Considering that we’re going to be remote for the foreseeable future, this is a chance not only to make our team work more effectively now but also set them up to be successful in their careers that will feature remote work. I think this will have a huge impact for my team and I can share what I’m learning with other managers at our organization. Here’s a link to the offer: LINK
I know we don’t typically have budget set aside for something like this, but this course will show me how to run remote team meetings and 1-1s more efficiently and get the team more engaged in our work. They're also running the course as a cohort, so I'll also be learning from other people in the group. I think this could move our average engineering velocity up two commits over the next three months and that’s just what I can tell right now. I know there’s more value here because this organization has been running workshops like this for over twelve years and has worked with similar organizations as ours.
I’d love to talk more about this opportunity. Can we chat later today? There’s a $500 discount if we sign up before Friday, knocking off a third of the cost.
-David
Hello Damian,

As discussed in our last 1-1, I have been looking to enhance my abilities around group facilitation. Even though I have watched several LinkedIn Learning videos, I think I would benefit by having someone to apply what I've learned into context and coach me.

I discovered a program that will allow me to get that experience as well as connect me to other professionals solving similar problems. This is the program, called the HR Impact Program.

The price tag is reasonable: it is over 10 hours of on-demand content and exactly the kind of knowledge I need to take my group facilitation to the next level. If our team can be more effective in how we work, we can spend less time in meetings and more time delivering billable hours. I think this program can easily pay for itself!

The instructor has been facilitating workshops and trainings for over a decade, but I'm personally sold after seeing one of his webinars that was unlike any webinar I've seen before. He got so much participation simply by asking really good questions and I got a lot out of that free offering: I think the paid one will be much more valuable.

I already emailed the coach and discovered that he's doing a promotion now that can save us $1500 off the regular price. I think now's a great time to jump on this perfect fit for me.

-Theresa