The ELearning Fieldbook [Electronic resources] : Implementation Lessons and Case Studies from Companies that are Making eLearning Work نسخه متنی

Case 3: Austrade

Company Facts and Figures

Industry: Australian Federal Government

Scope of Services and Products: Trade Advisory and Facilitation

Estimated Number of Employees: 997 (509 in Australia; 488 dispersed globally)

Year e-Learning Introduced: 2000

Offices and Locations: 90 offices in 60 countries

Estimated 2002 Revenues: AU$213 million

Web Site: www.austrade.gov.au

Number of e-Learning Programs in Entire Curriculum: 56

Introduction

There is much research data that indicates e-learning is only successful and affordable in large organizations. But Austrade, the Australian Trade Commission, is an excellent example of how a relatively small yet highly global organization has leveraged available vendor technology and content, combined with an intensive marketing campaign, to achieve extremely high e-learning usage rates among their employees.

Austrade is an agency of the Australian federal government that helps Australian companies win over- seas business for their products and services, and assists foreign businesses in sourcing goods and services from Australia by taking advantage of Austrade’s comprehensive networks and databases. They offer practical advice, market intelligence, and ongoing support (including financial) to Australian businesses looking to develop international markets, provide advice and guidance on overseas investments and joint venture opportunities, and help put overseas businesses in contact with potential Australian suppliers and investors.

Recognizing that the Internet is reshaping the global marketplace and transforming corporate strategies, Austrade established the Information Age Project to leverage Internet technology to better serve their clients. This included investing in the skills, training, and career development of employees through the Austrade Institute, a virtual structure that utilized the existing company intranet.

Why e-Learning?

Austrade selected an e-learning approach to:

Leverage an existing strong IT platform with a complete intranet that serviced every office in the organization

Provide a consistent message and make training available to all offices

Reduce training costs

How Was the Program Aligned with the Business?

Between 1995 and 1997, fast-paced technology advances, such as upgrading Microsoft Office 95 to 97 and Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.1 to 4.0, propelled the infrastructure platform forward but training did not follow. By 1999, the office managers and regional IT coordinators were indicating that staff was deficient in IT skills and competencies due the lack of targeted training. Many staff member spent much of their time trying to find out how to do things.

Training at that time was classroom-based, with a number of differences in training policies and availability of training between each office. There was a need in the organization to develop consistent skills on a global basis, not only in IT and software application areas, but in general business, interpersonal, and specialized business process skills.

Using the existing company intranet, e-learning was selected as the global training solution in June 2000, with SkillSoft (formerly SmartForce) chosen as the vendor to supply a broad curriculum of e-learning courses from their library. A customized portal was implemented in September of the same year.

e-Learning was funded originally as an IT special project, essentially offering the e-learning solution to the local offices for free. It is now funded centrally as a learning and development initiative on an ongoing basis, with no charge to the regions other than the time their staff applies to it.

Key Business Drivers

Need for consistent training across entire organization

Availability of training for all offices regardless of location

Comply with management directive that IT skills needed to be benchmarked to a recognized standard

How Was the Program Designed?

The first e-learning offered was a certification program of Microsoft IT skills and competencies. Thirty-four modules were launched on the first release. SkillSoft was chosen to deploy courses as it gave greater flexibility for future add-ons. As of 2003, there are 56 modules, with the addition of more technical courses for LAN administrators, 10 interpersonal courses, and two customized courses. Austrade is also moving beyond the generic SkillSoft modules to customized modules about their export procedures and business processes.

The courses are downloadable, giving the employee the option of completing training at home or while traveling. For SkillSoft assessments, the Austrade Institute provides internal certification and the Microsoft Office Specialist Accreditation Center provides global certification.

None of the courses or certification programs were compulsory as it was felt it would alienate employees and create a greater degree of resistance to e-learning. The program was deliberately designed to be “softer” to get a maximum amount of buy-in. Austrade believes this approach has actually enabled and allowed people to feel comfortable with online learning without added pressure on the learner. However, managers were encouraging staff to write into their performance agreements that they would get to a certain level or achieve a certificate, and had the option of using training as a required measure to improve an employee’s skills if they felt it was necessary.

Media and Tools

Self-paced learning on Austrade’s Intranet

SkillSoft library of courseware

Customized courses

A major component to making the program successful was the creation of an environment that fostered the development of an e-learning culture. This was a challenge due the global nature of the organization and the diverse cultural viewpoints on learning in the various office locations. A high degree of flexibility was given to the local offices to encourage training. Some of the solutions to creating this new learning environment included:

Creating space within the office for e-learning that eliminated interruptions, whether it was a separate cubical location or hanging up a sign that alerted fellow workers that a co-worker was engaged in e-learning and their learning time was to be respected

Providing incentives to complete e-learning, such as receiving a certificate, tying completion to bonus incentives, and making training part of the question and answer process during performance reviews

Public recognition ceremonies for the awarding of certificates by upper management

Supervisors lending out their own laptops so that direct reports without laptops could take e-learning courses at home

Management support of a company policy that allowed for 30 minutes per week of e-learning while on the job

How Was the Program Deployed?

SkillSoft serves as Austrade’s learning management system and also provides generic courses. A Web content development course and a customized Microsoft Outlook course were developed by other vendors. Austrade is also using a course development tool to create some of their own courses.

Access for courses is through Austrade’s intranet, rather than the Internet due to limited bandwidth and connectivity issues. Sixty of the ninety offices had only 16 to 32K bandwidth; other offices were basically dial-up sites who phoned via modems in on-demand to get their e-mail and use the internet. So because of the limited bandwidth, which varied depending upon the office location, Austrade replicated their training environment on the Intranet to every site and hosted all the courses on that site’s local server. This made maintenance and upgrades, which are done weekly, very slow. Updates are on CD-ROMs which are mailed weekly to the office LAN administrator, who then updates the information on the local server.

Marketing Approach

Each regional executive general manager ran the launch.

Preliminary information was initially sent out as a personalized flyer.

E-certificates at competency and advanced competency level in IT skills were offered so people had something to strive for.

Monthly reports to local office managers were provided in the first year stating who had done which modules for that month.

Prizes were awarded for the first person in some offices who completed their certificate.

Articles and photographs were placed in staff newsletters.

Special ceremonies were held to present certificates to learners.

Job positions were assessed to develop a set of modules employees should be capable of at various levels, such as intermediate or power user. This way, everyone knew what skills they should have, and what training they would need. Learners had the option of taking a competency test for each level. If they passed the test, they were deemed competent at that level and could move to the next level. If they failed the test, they had do go back and complete the relevant parts of that course and then were allowed to take the test again.

Summary reports go to senior management so they can see who has used e-learning, what courses were taken, how many tests were attempted and passed, and how many learners earned competency certificates. Reports can be generated at all levels so the managing director can clearly see if progress is being made.

What Was the Business Impact of the Program?

In annual client satisfaction surveys, Austrade’s approval rating improved from 75 percent to over 90 percent. Clients are receiving a more professional-looking product in a much quicker turnaround time.

Reporting mechanisms have provided senior management with a clear picture showing a greater degree of work output from the staff and improved efficiency in responding to clients. With supporting systems, 91 percent of the organization is using e-learning, which is being realized in increased productivity and competency in the workplace.

There has been a significant return on investment. In 1995, there was an IT training staff of five and a travel budget over a million dollars, plus each office had their own training budgets. In 2000, total IT training costs were approximately $225,000.

The current training infrastructure will support the move of all offices to a 128K minimum bandwidth at the end of 2002, with most offices going to 256K in 2003, allowing for true Internet-based e-learning and central administration of courseware.

Summary

Purpose:

To provide consistent training to all offices in all countries

To ensure all employees have the same access to training

Program Structure:

Utilize the company intranet and the SkillSoft library of courseware to provide IT Certification programs and interpersonal skills training

Number of Learning Hours per Learner: Varies

Total Number of Hours of Learning in the Program: Varies

Number of Learners: 900

Completion Requirements:

Completion of all modules and passing of tests to achieve competency

Media and Tools:

SkillSoft library of courseware

Customized courses

Deployment Mechanism:

Company intranet

Lessons Learned

Reach out to local offices for more initial buy-in prior to the launch stage. An office champion can help to encourage learning from the beginning.

Start up in some offices was slower than others. Add a "getting started" package and session to the launch, and have someone in the local office kick it off.

Need to upgrade infrastructure to support true remote access to e-learning for all offices.