<prompt> Human: Ive plateaued in job and am getting bored. I like what I do, so Im hoping that learning some new skills would help keep me mentally stimulated, provide better service to my customers, and increase my value to my employer. My job is in the USIve proposed a few different classes to my manager and his boss denies these requests. The class I want to take costs about 3k. Im at the point where I just want to pay out of pocket. If I pay for the class myself, is this cost tax deductible? Thats a lot of money for me to pay at once when I probably wont see an increase in pay for a few months after I finish. Are there grants that help with these types of costs. Am I better off trying to convince my employer to foot the bill?  <response>: Naturally an employer will only spend money on something that will make them more money. For example, Show them how this class could help you raise your sales or improve productivity or whatever by X, which would be Y more dollars annually for the company. 