According to Noel Farrell, Workforce Development Specialist, Hewlett Packard (Manufacturing) Ltd, 'the Mechatronics e-learning programme was rolled out through a managed piloting exercise over a two year period. This allowed extensive testing; feedback and time for reflection on a range of factors that were influencing successful take up. In parallel, the growth in expertise and influence of the HP workforce development department has led to wider changes, which will have an important influence on the strategic use of e-learning. For example, supervisors are now expected to undertake a training needs analysis (TNA) for their area, examine the competences of the individuals in their teams and develop individual training plans (ITPs) for each. This approach is now being used to identify the specific skills needs of their maintenance technicians and to take advantage of the new technology-supported, flexible Mechatronics programme, to fill in the gaps.'
Tony White, Workforce Development Manager, sees MOFIT as affording HP an opportunity to partner with FAS to develop and pilot a programme that will be of significant value to the Irish economy and to Europe. 'This has been an epic journey during which time a lot of institutionalised practices have been challenged and improved, if the team involved in this project had listened to outside influences it would have never got off the ground. Doubters prevailed at the project inception; it has been real leaders who rose to this challenge and moved forward. Often we are told, "it can be done"; for the MOFIT programme it was a case of "how will we get it done". This project has been a resounding success for both HP as a business and for FAS as a national institution, the courage of the project team in particular Michael Mooney (FAS) and Noel Farrell (HP) has led to a program that is flexible, innovative and rewarding for attendees and business alike.'
'HP as a business has seen a significant return on its investment in this programme and one would estimate these savings to be in the region of hundreds of thousands of Euro. The magnitude of this should not be forgotten - a programme that didn't exist in this form three years ago has realised this level of ROI in such a short period of time. In my time as a training professional, this level of ROI from an academic programme has never been witnessed. So what was the difference? FAS came up with an idea, and looked for partners; they wanted to partner and not just provide training - here was the paradigm shift - the stakeholders were involved in developing the outcomes and not just informed of them. This sounds straightforward but academia and industry do not appear to work well together in this way in my experience. FAS looked for coaches from within the organisation to cement the partnership and make the program live within the organisation. The ability for attendees to access internal coaches as well as academic tutors provided an environment conducive to learning; the experience of the coach combined with theory learned has led to a very effective knowledge transfer process which is proving to be popular with participants.'
He concludes, 'What lies ahead? The challenge for this programme is to continue to evolve - as industry makes things faster, smaller and more complex, the programme will need to keep pace with these changes. The way forward is partnership with industry - if this continues one can only foresee success.'
...continue to the future (p2)
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