The general rule is: Educational expenses to improve your current job
skills are deductible. But learning a new job is not. From JK Lasser’s Your
Income Tax 2013, pg 580: "For a deduction, the courses must be related to
your existing job responsibilities and not lead to qualification for a new
business.
This doesn't come up
very often because most people come out better with the Lifetime Learning
credit or tuition & fees adjustment (“above the line” deduction), rather than
taking an itemized deduction subject to the 2% of AGI Threshold. But you can do
both if you tuition is more than $10,000.
https://www.irs.gov/publications/p970/ch12.html
