VCOM Faculty Handbook

Participation in the program must directly benefit the mission of the college and the coursework must be directly related to the employee’s job duties or align with a potential career path within the organization. Approval must be obtained in advance from the employee’s immediate Direct Supervisor, Division Officer, and the President. The budget to fund educational aid requests is established each fiscal year and is limited. When the number of applicants exceeds the funds available in a budgeted year, only applications that are deemed to have significant value to VCOM’s mission will be funded. For more information, contact your Director for Human Resources and/or review Policy U003: VCOM Employee Educational Aid Program Policy and Procedures in the VCOM Policy and Procedure Manual. CPE/CME and Professional Dues VCOM provides funding for continuing professional education (CPE)/continuing medical education (CME) and professional dues and fees to full-time faculty and administrative staff who typically are at the director level or higher. The purpose of such money is to support the education of the faculty/staff member to assure they remain current with educational, biomedical sciences, and medical information and to maintain certain certifications required for their employment. This money is a limited amount determined annually and employees should contact their supervisor to learn if they have a CME/CPE and/or dues budget and the amount that has been allotted to them. These funds are not a gift of money to be used for purposes other than education. The amount must fall within the annual amount approved by the Board. CPE/CME and professional dues in excess of budgeted amounts must be expressly required by the Campus Dean/Officer and approved prior to scheduling. Faculty and staff with CPE/CME and/or professional dues budgeted for their use may select the educational activity or professional organization on which to spend their budgeted funds with approval by the employee’s supervisor prior to scheduling. In some cases, the employee’s supervisor may specify how the employee is to use said funds (i.e. in the event that attendance at a conference/workshop is required to learn specific skills or gain knowledge to perform the employee’s job duties). Appropriate uses of the CME/CPE and professional dues budgets by employees are listed below: • Business travel and related expenses to attend a conference, selected by the employee (or employee’s supervisor) and approved by his or her supervisor, at which continuing education units will be awarded. • Attendance at the conference shall be directly job-related and aid the employee in performing his or her job. • Books or related materials for a self-study course, subject to supervisor approval. • Dues (up to the employee’s budgeted limit) to professional associations or societies, most of which require completion of continuing education units to maintain membership. The employee spending budgeted CME/CPE and professional dues should note this fact on the purchasing and reimbursement form or the travel expense form. Drop down boxes containing the appropriate coding is available on these forms. Employee’s CME/CPE and professional dues budget may not be available to the employee when the employee is enrolled in college-level courses, which are being paid by VCOM.

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