There is no signaling reason if it’s your own employee. You already know the guy. You know him far more intimately than any degree.
I understand. My point is that if a person is going to get a Master’s degree anyways, it’s cheaper for the employer to compensate them by paying for their education than by actually paying them extra money, because the government will give them tax breaks for doing so. This is the real reason employers pay for employees’ education (besides a misguided sense of charity), not the other thing.
And people audit college courses all the time for upskilling. I’m considering doing so for grad courses right now.
Yet the vast majority don’t audit courses, even when it’s free. In the United States, you can walk into very respectable universities like UC Berkeley and sit in on any class you like. Even people who live next to the campus almost never do. Anomalous if you believe most of the value of education comes from imparting skills, obvious if you believe most of the value of UC Berkeley education is transacted via the degree that says “UC Berkeley grad” and not the information students study while attending.
I understand. My point is that if a person is going to get a Master’s degree anyways, it’s cheaper for the employer to compensate them by paying for their education than by actually paying them extra money, because the government will give them tax breaks for doing so. This is the real reason employers pay for employees’ education (besides a misguided sense of charity), not the other thing.
Yet the vast majority don’t audit courses, even when it’s free. In the United States, you can walk into very respectable universities like UC Berkeley and sit in on any class you like. Even people who live next to the campus almost never do. Anomalous if you believe most of the value of education comes from imparting skills, obvious if you believe most of the value of UC Berkeley education is transacted via the degree that says “UC Berkeley grad” and not the information students study while attending.