Often a memo to your superior justifying the educational expense is required. The key points to emphasized in the memo are the professional manor you wish to "progress" with your "career", how your new knowledge will "enhance" your "skill level", providing "added value" to their operation, or how it may allow you to improve production and how you could pass on valuable skills and information to other employees. Point out, the greater the education of an employee, the less supervision they require and how much more efficient they can be. Tell them you will be more capable of having greater insight into their problems, allowing you to more effectively solve and trouble shoot problems faster and more accurately. Basically let them know they can "SAVE" money and "MAKE MORE" money by spending a "LITTLE" on you. It will be a small expense that will pay dividends over and over again and again. Tell them employees are happier when their needs are met. And happy employees are productive employees. At the same time you have to let them know what sacrifices you are willing to make, such as utilizing a year's vacation in order to attend an educational institution as I did [Not always necessary]. Here you may want to dramatize to some degree, just don't have it in your mind that you can walk them down the garden path. Inevitably that will back fire on you. Even though the greatest effort will be on your part and the pay out from this will inevitably be in their favor, do let them know that it is a great undertaking on your part. This is easily demonstrated by the fact that there are few P.E.T./Stationary Engineers around, particularly second class P.E.T.s/Stationary Engineers if that's what you are going for.

These assertions should all be valid.  Don't stretch the truth.  Be honest.  If your employer has a true need for employees to be better educated and they have an education program make it so every body wins.

At the end of your course of study and when you have achieved your diploma and/or certificate you may see a pay increase or a promotion with the pay increase, depending on what level of achievement you have acquired. This will depend on the structure of the company you work for and the need and appreciation for greater technical expertise. If they are smart, they will reward you for your efforts because they will want to keep their investment and reap the dividends rather than lose you to a competitor. If you are smart, you will utilize your newly acquired education to benefit your employer.  Remember, there is always another company out there that requires your talents and is willing to pay you well for them. One way or the other it will pay off for you if you are persistent and continually make efforts in that direction to improve skills.

Most often employers will pay for work related training and sometime pay for time spent at the courses if it is an in class or seminar type of situation. This is the easiest form of investment a person can make for themselves and their employer. Its like taking someone else's money, putting it in the bank for them while you get to keep the interest generated from it. Its a freebie and a win, win situation, so go for it!! There ain’t no shame in this. This is the way the business works so make it work for YOU!

Back in the day when I first started out as a Power Engineer with just a 4th class certification (1984), there was time to put in hours of study time on night shift and weekends.  As the years have gone by, time availability has changed.  I have seen the volume of work expectations for lockouts, cleanup, administrative stuff and paperwork has considerably shaved off that study time to almost nothing.  Depends what corporation you work for.  One change from the outside that has facilitated this recent trend in lees study time at work is, many folks are graduating from N.A.I.T. and S.A.I.T. with their second class papers written off and just need their steam time to validate their certification.  That is a big change from years gone by.

The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology { Otherwise referred to as S.A.I.T. } is the originator of in class study materials and for distance learning.  The organization that currently distributes these educational materials is PanGlobal out of Calgary, Alberta.  They are the Globally recognized educational authority when it comes to a standardized training for Power Engineers, Stationary Engineers, Steam Engineers and Boiler Operators.

There are trade schools, vocational schools, community colleges and polytechnics that teach this stuff all around the world.  Many of them only do it on a part time basis, some intermittently and some that large enough do it on a regular basis.

If you are fortunate enough to be granted the opportunity for a government funded education like I did, you are in luck.  Be sure to check state, provincial and federal government funded programs.  They can make life so much easier for you.  Most government websites are confusing at best and so you may end up making numerous phone calls to you local Man Power or government training and employment agency to be put on the right track.  I'd give you links here but, the game keeps changing too fast for this website to keep up with bureaucracy.  I do have a few at Canadian training and apprenticeship and U.S. training and apprenticeship that may get you started.