Happy New Year, Peers!!
Welcome to the latest episode of the Testing Peers podcast, this time panel explores how testers and quality professionals can make the most of their training budgets, whether that budget is zero, modest, or stretches into several thousand pounds.
Hosts this week: Russell Craxford, David Maynard, Chris Armstrong, and Tara Walton.
The discussion is grounded in real experience and looks at how learning choices change depending on constraints, priorities, and organisational context.
Starting from Zero: Learning Without a Budget
The episode begins by challenging the assumption that learning requires money. The hosts highlight the breadth and quality of free resources available, including:
- Blogs, podcasts, and community-driven content
- Free learning platforms such as Test Automation University, freeCodeCamp, and edX
- Vendor-provided learning resources from tooling and platform providers
A key recommendation is the free “Learning How to Learn” course by Barbara Oakley and Terrence Sejnowski, which helps people understand how they learn best before deciding where to invest time or money.
Spending Around £100: Small Budgets, Real Value
With a budget of around £100, the focus shifts to intentional, value-led choices:
- Books as a focused, low-distraction way to learn:
- Subscriptions to learning platforms rather than single courses
- Prioritising practical outcomes over certificates
- Using community recommendations to avoid low-quality content
- TestSphere and RiskStorming cards
- Obviously, the Testing Peers Conference, March 12th 2026
Books such as Explore It, The Phoenix Project, The Culture Code and other systems thinking titles are highlighted as high-value, low-cost investments.
Around £500: Community, Conferences, and Exposure
At the £500 level, learning opportunities expand:
- Attending local conferences, meetups, or community events
- Leeds Test Atelier (Free to attend)
- SIGiST
- ShipItCon
- Covering travel, accommodation, and tickets for nearby events
- Investing in leadership, communication, and presentation skills
- Subscriptions such as Ministry of Testing Pro (including a ticket to their #MoTaCon event) and similar learning communities
- LeanPub
The hosts discuss the value of human connection, being exposed to new perspectives, and coming away from events with renewed ideas and motivation.
Certifications and Career Signals
The conversation takes a balanced view on certifications, including ISTQB:
- Not a definition of quality or capability
- Potentially useful for people entering the industry
- Helpful as a signal when experience is limited
- More valuable as a foundation than an end goal
Applied learning and experience are consistently emphasised over certification for its own sake.
Bigger Budgets: £3k and Beyond
With larger budgets, the discussion broadens to include:
- Major national and international conferences
- Bespoke, in-house training for teams or departments
- Specialist courses such as security or cloud training
- Hardware, tooling, and infrastructure that remove unnecessary friction
- Bootcamps and structured career change programmes
Time is highlighted as just as important as money. Without protected learning time, even generous budgets have a limited impact.
Culture, Time, and Trust
A recurring theme throughout the episode is organisational culture:
- Learning needs to be actively supported, not quietly discouraged
- Testers often feel more pressure than others to avoid time away
- Leaders setting an example helps make learning feel safer
- Unspent training budgets often reflect fear or lack of trust rather than lack of interest
The hosts reflect on situations where learning budgets existed but went unused, and what needs to change for learning to be genuinely accessible.
A Message to Employers
The episode closes with a clear message for organisations:
- Invest in people, not just outputs
- Protect learning time as well as budgets
- Support development during periods of rapid change, including AI
- Recognise that people want to grow, not remain static in their roles
Learning is not a luxury. It is a fundamental part of sustainable teams.
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