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Purpose of Corporate Universities:

Corporate universities may be set up to assist an organization with:

• Organizing training
• Initiating change within an organization
• Determining impact and ROI of learning within an organization
• Establishing a common culture
• Develop and retain employee

Important Components Prior to Development

Company Core Values – These should drive common areas of learning within an organization and represent the culture and important measurement points within and organization.

• Organizational/Leadership Competencies – These competencies are usually developed to apply at a leadership level. Common competencies of leaders are important to delivering on the core values of the company. An assessment/survey of leaders within an organization would help establish and create and validate organizational/leadership competencies. There are many tools and many competency models available. Determining the top 5-7 competencies based on your core values is the most effective.
• Technical competencies – These are gathered for each area of expertise within an organization. Each role, each department within an organization has specific areas of strength that are important to delivering on initiatives and performing daily activities.
• Learning Audit – This helps an organization understand where, when, and by whom training is being delivered throughout the organization. Results of this audit will enable an organization to understand areas of overlap and uniqueness while aligning each learning activity to corporate values, organizational competencies, and technical competencies.

Structuring a Corporate University Content
Structure and support are important to the success of a corporate university. The following structure, aligned to core values as well as organizational/ leadership and technical competencies, is preferred to deliver a positive learning experience:

• Cultural Learning Events – This grouping contains any heritage, history, and traditions within and organization. These sessions would align heavily to the Company Core Values. Repetition of these values should be prevalent throughout. This would be typically owned by the corporate university and an instructional design team partnered with a global delivery team.
• Leadership Learning Events – This category aligns to the organizational / leadership competencies established within an organization. These classes are meant to provide up to three possible levels of delivery and development of leadership competencies, basic, intermediate, and advanced. This would be typically owned by the corporate university and an instructional design team partnered with a global delivery team.
• Area of Focus Learning Events – These types of learning events would be specific to each business unit within an organization (i.e., finance, administrative, information technology, etc.). Alignment to the technical competencies for each area of focus will assist a team in performance management and development of team members, providing the opportunity to grow within the department. This would be typically owned by the local trainers and a local delivery team with support from the corporate design and delivery team.
• Regulatory Learning Events – These types of activities are typically required by federal, state, and local agencies. While content based on standardizations from an outside source is important, alignment to core values and competencies is needed to make these relevant to the individuals and the organization. This would be typically owned by the corporate university and can be designed by an instructional design team partnered with a global delivery team. However, these would be good candidates for purchasing external resources. Local specifics may be needed if there are variations by team and location.
• Developmental Learning – These types of learning events usually consist of blended learning activities that align to organizational/ leadership competencies and core values. Most of these activities are done on an individual’s own time. This would be typically owned by the corporate university and can be designed by an instructional design team partnered with a global delivery team. However, these would be good candidates for purchasing external resources.

Structuring a Corporate University People
Board of Regents – This is a team of individuals who would act as a filter and approval board for new and existing content. The leader would be a full-time, executive role. While the remainder of the team would consist of representatives from each Area of Focus/Department within an organization. This enables buy-in and alignment to core values which assist in a more positive return on learning investments.

Keys to Delivery
Once the people and content structure are set, components that aid in delivery are important to delivering on expectations and enabling a positive return on investment.

• Learning Management System – This is an electronic means by which all learning within an organization is captured.
• Content Management System – This would be an electronic system in which all content is stored as reusable learning object based on topic.
• Evaluation Tool – This tool would help measure the success and impact of each learning event on satisfaction, knowledge, application, and ROI levels.
• Corporate University Design and Delivery Team – While local trainers are important, many topics are consistent within teams. Through a global team, consistency in delivery and measurement would be enhanced.