Technology Doesn’t Stop, Neither Should Education

Engineering departments are full of specialized knowledge accumulated via years of experience that is critical to each company’s particular product design and development workflow. Losing that knowledge as engineers retire or change positions is a big hit to productivity. If that knowledge could be captured and shared, then the entire organization could continuously build on what it does right and fix what it could do better, rather than being trapped in a cycle of knowledge loss and re-learning.

It’s an easy concept to grasp, but a more difficult one to implement. Even smaller companies, where everyone is in the same building, struggle with knowledge capture and sharing. In larger, global organizations, a concerted effort is required that places significant value on professional development. UTC Aerospace Systems is meeting that challenge with its learning distribution system, the Academy of Engineering Excellence. UTC Aerospace Systems is the world’s largest supplier of aerospace and defense products with 41,000 employees worldwide.

“We trained 17,953 people last year in 286 courses,” says Mary C. Bollash, manager of the Academy. Those are even more impressive numbers when you consider that Bollash’s staff consists of herself and one staff member. The key to the Academy’s success is the support Bollash receives from the company’s leadership and its subject matter experts.

The Academy of Engineering Excellence relies on 75 fellows who are experts from the company who have gone through a rigorous process to demonstrate their expertise and learn how to teach and mentor others, Bollash says. “Fellows are the best of our technical best,” Bollash says.

Those fellows are responsible for developing courses to share their knowledge with their co-workers, with Bollash’s assistance.

“My background is instructional design for online learning, so I’ll help them to try to make each course as engaging as possible,” Bollash says. She has a doctorate in adult education and a master’s degree in instructional design. “They’re the content experts,” she says.

Making Learning a Priority

Bollash says education has always been important at UTC Aerospace Systems and at parent company United Technologies (UTC). The company’s leadership views employees as UTC’s best resource and a goal is having the best educated workforce on the planet. UTC has invested more than $1 billion in employees’ formal training since 1996 as part of its Employee Scholar Program. The Academy at UTC Aerospace Systems grew from the need to capture and share what employees have learned.

“What our leadership realizes, is that we have so much talent, we have to make sure it gets transferred,” she says. “If we have an expert and they know so much, and they don’t share that knowledge, then when that person is gone the knowledge is gone. Because we’re so spread out globally, we need a vehicle to spread that knowledge.”

The UTC Aerospace Systems Academy of Engineering Excellence is that vehicle. The technology used in many of the courses includes video conferencing and electronic white boards that are shared with Academy students all over the world. Training can also take the form of hands-on labs and break-out sessions, in addition to online interactivity. The live lessons are captured, archived, and are available for asynchronous playback to accommodate learners in different time zones or learners who just want to review content covered. Additionally, these recordings are often used to develop training content such as self-paced e-learning courses.

Bollash demonstrated how part of the technology works by virtually presenting at the CD-adapco STAR Global Conference that took place in Prague, from her office in the U.S. CD-adapco and a handful of other outside partners contribute training to the Academy, but the majority of courses are taught by UTC Aerospace Systems employee experts.

Looking ahead, Bollash is working toward getting courses certified for continuing education credits by the International Association of Continuing Education & Training. The association could also help Bollash in her efforts to benchmark the courses to ensure learning is taking place.

“I’m exceptionally proud of the Academy,” Bollash says. “I know we make a difference every day as we fulfill our mission to connect our experts to the learners.”