How Can You Become A Certified Grant Writer? Classes, Internship, Mentorship, Apprentices

Here's a vlog I did today! The entire transcription is on this page with some additional resources to help you. Enjoy!

• Real Viable Option
• Distinction Between an Apprenticeship Program and an Internship Program

Hey there, this is Rodney Walker and I will continue our conversation about what does it take to become a certified grant writer? Where do you go about learning this? How do you become one? Well, the good news is this. There are a lot of ways that you can learn how to become a certified grant writer. And I want to share with you some of the different options that you have.

You know, it's good having options. And I want to explain the different options so that you can kind of see which one works the best for you. Now, here's what I want to say to you about that. Whenever you're thinking about choosing any type of learning, you want to ask yourself some really good questions. Yes. You want to ask not only the institution or the individual that you be learning from, but you want to ask yourself. Now, "What do you mean by ask yourself, Rodney?" Well, this is what I mean. You want to ask yourself, how do you learn this? And we all really learn differently.

Some people learn better by being hands on. Other people are really good at hearing information and they're more audio in nature in terms of their learning style. Other people, you know, they are more visual. They need to see it. And if they can see it, they can be it. 

So you got to ask yourself, how do you go about learning best? And depending upon how you learn best is how you should go about finding the best place to help you to become a certified grant writer. Now, remember, there are different types of certifications. There are classes that you can be certified that you taking certain information that you've acquired certain skills by taking the class and they just simply give you the information.

And then there are other programs that are more certification in nature, meaning that they have a criteria that they're going to be holding you up against. And you have to jump those hoop to make sure that you've actually mastered that information. So that being the case, there are different types of training certification programs, as well as those that are just training you on the information. 

Real Viable Option

In this video for now, I'm going to really be addressing the issue of how do you go about getting the training? How do you go about getting the information and then in some other videos later on that I'll prepare for you. I'll go into more detail about the actual certification piece and we'll take a look at that. But for now, let's talk about this piece right now. Let's look at the fact that when you're doing a certification, okay? When you're doing this certification, it's really important. And here's what here's what's really important about that.

You have different option. Here are those options that you want to consider. You can actually take a class, okay? Now, by taking a class, you can take the class online.

You can also show up to a physical location. You got to know yourself how you kind of learn best in that regard. But classes are real viable option.

When I first started out, as I tell you the last time, I just kind of fell flat on my face. By just kind of dive into the process right in my own grant proposal. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that unless you are just super gifted and being able to just read information and to go at it, okay? But for most of us, taking a class and having somebody give us some of the preliminary instructions can be really, really important.

So classes are one option. Another thing is, if you can actually go through an internship, okay? Now by an internship, I'm talking about somebody that's going to take you under their wings for a period of time where you go, in essence, almost any other volunteer with them. Sometimes you may get fortunate and get a paid internship. Those are rare. But the bottom line is having somebody that works within an organization for period time to train you.

So that's another way of being on the road to become a certified grant writer. The other thing that you can do is you can have someone that serves as a mentor, somebody that you know, that's already in the field that may do something similar. Maybe you're not working for that organization as an internship for a period of time, but maybe you've just got somebody that's going to kind of take you underneath their wings. And if you find somebody to do that, man, consider yourself fortunate and very lucky in that regard, because those are a little hard to get as well, getting somebody to take you underneath their wing that the next thing that you can do.

Distinction Between an Apprenticeship Program and an Internship Program

There's another way you can also do an apprenticeship program. And there are grant writing apprenticeships where you actually serve over a period of time and learn the skill that way. And an apprenticeship is like you're working with somebody and they are helping you and over a period of time showing you the ropes. Now, what's the difference between an apprenticeship program and an internship program?

Now, when you think about an internship program, a lot of times you're thinking about an organization such as a non-profit that may exist and that non-profit that exists is going to be showing you the ropes about how they do their grant writing within their organization, and most of the time you're kind of dependent upon the expertise of that person that's showing you in that organization. Now, they may or may not have been trained, okay? So they may be coming from job experiences on the job experience, which can be valuable as well. But just know that you are kind of dependent upon that person's expertise and they're going to be sharing with you.

You know, remember, you can only learn what somebody knows and they can only teach what they know. So that's one of the things you've got to kind of consider. So you have the apprenticeship version where you have somebody that's been doing this for a while that you can learn from them based upon, again, their experience, their education, their skill and their success.

So that's another way. So you have the option of going to a class, you have the option of taking either grant writing certification online class could be a possibility. You also have some directors' studies that you can do. There's some programs, classes that way. You also have the option of getting an internship. The option of doing mentorship with somebody is going to work with you and you have the option of doing an apprenticeship.

These are some of the main ways that I've seen people learn the skill and the skill puts them on the road to becoming certified, because at the end of the day, remember, there may be an institution that will be giving the validation, saying, yes, in fact, this person has met these criteria, okay? This is what it looks like to be on the road to becoming a certified grant writer. And I hope this information is helpful. And remember, if you got a question, send me those questions so I can continue to help you in this area because I want to see you achieve the goal that you have. Remember, at the end of the day, this is all about you. How do you learn best? What's going to be most effective for you in this process until we talk again? 

Remember, be brave, be bold, and be brilliant, and always take charge.

Rodney Walker is today’s leading expert in Grant Development Systems™ and President of Grant Central USA - Grant Writers Association. Learn more about his online grant writing courses today.