by Frank Gibson, Workforce Development Advisor, retired from The Ohio State University – Alber Enterprise Center
A lot is being said these days about “employer-responsive” worker training programs. I think all educational institutions want to believe they have all the answers to all of the challenges employers face. Although I have found that we had many of the answers for many disciplines, it was important to realize our limitations and either find other resources to fill the gap or be truthful with the client so that they might look elsewhere for those answers and solutions.
While a program manager for The Ohio State University – Alber Enterprise Center, which I worked at since its early beginnings in 1996, I learned the value of listening to the employer and providing them what they needed. The Center was founded on the premise of providing educational and technical consulting services to business enterprises throughout the region to help them grow and prosper. Whether to help them train their workers to the latest in technical skills or train their management on the latest management theories and best practices, the Alber Center assembled an extensive network of institutional and private training providers to meet their needs and continued to expand their network to help employer-clients maintain their competitive best.
While we felt The Center did a good job of providing foundation skills for all levels of an operation, we recognized that an educational institution cannot, and really should not, provide employer-specific, task-based training. It is not economically feasible for The Center to maintain the staff and expertise to service every small, medium and large enterprise in our region on processes that are unique to each. It takes a high level of maintained excellence to perform the necessary job and task analysis, develop the employer-specific training materials, train the employer’s staff to effectively implement structured OJT and mange this “systems approach” to build on the foundation our other programs provide.
The Alber Center realized it could partner with such an organization, Proactive Technologies, Inc., early on in 1996, to provide that level of service to its customers in a partnership that provides “turnkey” project services to employers. This approach combined related technical instruction provided by OSU-Alber Center and its network of specialists and structured on-the-job training provided by Proactive Technologies and its staff. Employers that The Center worked with over the years had been not only receptive, but some clients had continued to utilize this approach for over 20 years. And today, many of these visionary employers realize that they were among the first to embrace and implement an approach for which other employers still to this day only wish and hope to experience.
I retired from the Alber Center in 2016 but continued to partner with them on projects of mutual interest as I began my own consulting business. The Ohio State University made the decision to close the Alber Center in 2020. Today, I continue to help employers, and local and regional agencies, with workforce development projects, often partnering with Proactive Technologies, Inc. Their approach to worker development may be unique in its comprehensiveness, but its practicality and efficiency is still a “no-brainer” for CEOs and General Managers.
We continue to look for those visionary employers who are seeking solutions beyond the seemingly mainstream (solutions that turn out to be merely newer versions of older themes and materials). Our satisfaction comes in providing employers with such a robust service that even supports their LEAN implementation, their compliance with ISO, IATF and AS quality initiatives with regard to training, helps to provide real-time data for hiring, provides a strong infrastructure for “competency-based” and “hybrid” apprenticeships, and more. Employers recognize that a structured on-the-job training infrastructure “capstone” becomes the clear focal point of the foundation skills programs we provide and helps us ensure the “job relevancy” of our related technical instruction content.
Furthermore, Proactive Technologies, Inc. is not worried about sharing a source of project revenue with a training provider or institution. Project partners achieved, together, revenue levels far beyond what each could have done individually since employers tend to extend their service contracts longer and request more of our services as the need is revealed through implementing the structured on-the-job training. For the employer, the employee-trainee, and the partners this is truly a win-win-win approach!
To read about some of The OSU-Alber Center/Proactive Technologies, Inc. projects:
Proactive Technologies Report – Newsletter August, 2015, Ohio Project Updates
Proactive Technologies’ Report – Summer 2008
Proactive Technologies – OSU Alber Center Handout – 2005
Proactive Technologies’ Report – Spring/Summer 2004
If you would like to know how this approach might work at your firm or in partnership with a local institution, or how a pilot project may be the best way to introduce this approach to your organization, contact a Proactive Technologies representative today to schedule a GoToMeeting videoconference briefing to your computer. This can followed up with an onsite presentation for you and your colleagues. A 13-minute promo briefing is available at the Proactive Technologies website and provides an overview to get you started and to help you explain it to your staff.
Proactive Technologies, Inc.®; PROTECH; Human Resource Management for Tomorrow...Today!® and logo;