4 ways of continuing professional development (CPD)

Continuing professional development

Continuing professional development – also called CPD – can be relevant for employees who want to develop their work skills. It may also be obvious to further train selected staff, for example if an employee is to be promoted to a management position, but lacks a theoretical and/or practical basis.

In this connection, we have prepared an article that contains 4 different continuing educational courses that you can offer your employee.

Danish AMU courses

AMU courses – also called labour market education – are intended for both unskilled and skilled employees. The teaching is a combination of practical teaching and theory and can be studied fulltime or parttime.

All AMU courses are competenceproviding and a number of the programmes also provide credit for vocational training. Students who complete an AMU course receive an education certificate for the course in question.

AMU courses are offered at various educational institutions in the country, for example in Aarhus and Copenhagen.

The HD education in Denmark

The HD degree is a business economics parttime education that is obvious for employees who need to strengthen their understanding of business economics. The education is divided into 2 parts, namely HD 1st part and HD 2nd part. Depending on the educational background of your employees, they can start HD part 1 or HD part 2.

In the HD part 1, your employees acquire a basic understanding of business economics and learn, among other things, on micro and macroeconomics, organisational theory and commercial law. On HD 2nd part, the employee can specialise in a number of fields, e.g. finance. A number of the HD 2nd part programmes give access to a master's course. However, it should be noted that the HD program is not originally intended for the students to continue on the Master's programme.

The HD programmes are offered by various universities in the country, for example in Aarhus and Copenhagen. It is also worth mentioning that the training is also offered as an online course, which may be relevant for employees who are stationed abroad, for example.

Single subject

Many Danish educational institutions also offer individual subjects that may be relevant for the individual employee. Here we can mention "supply chain management", if the employee works with logistics, or "Python programming", if the employee has a working day that involves coding.

Courses

Another way in which your employees can improve their skills further is through courses. It can be, for example, courses that deal with digital marketing, but it can also be a training course that equips employees to take on a leadership role.

If you would like to read more about how you can equip your employees to lead a team or a department, you should read this article.

The above continuing education for employees typically costs money. In addition, the company may also risk losing resources on days when the employee should have worked, but is for teaching. Here, your workplace can in some cases apply for the Danish VEU compensation.

VEU compensation

Your workplace can receive a VEU compensation as compensation when your employees participate in vocational training and receive wages during the training. You can also receive a grant for transport to cover the employee's transportation costs.

You can apply for VEU compensation when you register your employee for a course at voksenuddannelse.dk.

There are a number of conditions that must be met before you can be granted VEU compensation, for example:

• Your employee must participate in the course. This means that you only get VEU compensation for the hours the educational institution registers the employee participates in. Here it should be noted that you can only get VEU compensation for a maximum of 37 hours per week
• The employee must work in Denmark. In addition, your company must have a CVR number
• The employee must attend classes during their working hours and receive a salary in order for you to receive VEU compensation
• Your employee must not have an education that is higher than a vocational education, unless your employee has not used his education in the last five years
• The employee may not receive public welfare benefits. This means that you cannot get a VEU allowance if the employee receives benefits such as early retirement and state pension. However, you may receive VEU compensation if the employee is paid supplementary unemployment benefit. For course hours where the employee would have received supplementary daily allowance, only the employee can receive VEU compensation

You cannot apply for VEU compensation if your employee receives training at the weekend and usually has the weekend off. This also applies if the teaching is held on public holidays or other days when the employee has time off. This is because your company does not suffer loss of wages or work.