How to budget GIS training for 2027: prepaid training from Esri Canada

If you’re planning your 2027 geographic information systems (GIS) training budget, you're likely facing competing priorities: improving staff productivity, keeping pace with ArcGIS innovations and controlling training costs. Prepaying for your team’s GIS training can help you train more employees, simplify budgetary approvals and reduce the per-day cost of professional development. To learn more, keep scrolling!

Now that budgeting season is under way, you’re likely thinking about how to advance your team’s GIS professional development in 2027. You might be asking yourself: “How can my team keep up with rapid changes in GIS technology?” “What’s the most cost-effective, high-quality GIS training program in Canada?” And most of all: “How do I train GIS staff on a limited budget?”

One great option that answers all of these questions is Esri Canada’s Prepaid Training Program, an easy and highly flexible option for organizations to ensure that you’re hitting your GIS professional development goals.

What is Esri Canada’s Prepaid Training Program?

Esri Canada’s Prepaid Training Program helps GIS teams like yours enable continuous ArcGIS training and GIS workforce development in a cost-effective and convenient way.

The Prepaid Training Program allows you to pick a package of training days, receive one single invoice and then work with your team to simply select and register for any of Esri Canada’s training courses that fit within your remaining amount of days.

Prepaid training allows you to streamline your budgeting and administration into one GIS training purchase per year. No need to identify the courses you want to take up front: sign up for open enrollment courses anytime, or consider a small group training (6+ students) just for your team.

How will prepaid training help maximize my organization’s GIS technology investment?

Esri technology is changing and shifting all the time, and so are the skills required to maximize its use. Using ArcGIS software in day-to-day workflows is a great way to develop knowledge of it, but without additional—and ongoing—GIS skills training to show your staff what’s new and changing about the technology, they might not realize the breadth of possibilities available to them.

Prepaid training can be applied to open enrollment courses or small-group training, allowing you to address training needs as and when they arise. And by having that amount ready to go, your organization will be better positioned to adopt new ArcGIS capabilities as they emerge.

Why use a prepaid training amount for my team’s GIS professional development?

Do GIS training budget requests in your organization require layers of review and approval? Sometimes, it’s not the training itself that prevents us from taking it—it’s the amount of administration required.

Prepaid training ensures that you’ve already set aside packets of staff upskilling time that can be used to address competency gaps, without having to put in a new training budget request every time. Whether you need the time for GIS certification preparation, specialized utility or government GIS training, or broader GIS team development, prepaid training allows you to make just one GIS training purchase for the whole year and win back some peace of mind.

Best of all: the more days you purchase, the greater the savings. Prepurchase 10 training days for a 5% discount, 15 days for a 10% discount or 20+ days for a 15% discount. At a 10% discount or above, that amounts to extra free training days for your team, making even better use of your limited budget.

Prepaid training is great for locking in your team’s GIS training budget in a ready-to-use mode. Training registration and payment become streamlined, better securing course placements for staff. The ease with which Esri Canada prepaid training can be put in place, along with the discount, makes it a favourable option for me and my organization. —Harold MacNeil, Manager Engineering Information, Halifax Water

Is Esri Canada’s prepaid training option right for my organization?

Prepaid training might be a good fit for your GIS professional development goals if:

• you want a single, predictable GIS training line item
• you want flexibility in terms of training topics – no need to choose in advance
• you want flexibility in terms of individual and group training
• you want to maximize your limited training budget via a discounted rate

If any of these describes you and your GIS training goals, then prepaid training might be right for you.

Book a consultation to explore prepaid training

It’s simple math: the more days of training you pre-purchase, the more savings you achieve. Check Esri Canada’s Prepaid Training Program rates for the latest pricing, then consult an Esri Canada Training advisor to identify your team’s skill gaps and build a customized GIS learning plan.