2. • 6 full time staff
• 15+ external facilitators
• 50+ GAC Group operating company clients
• Around 100 courses launched per year
• 90% of courses conducted through eLearning
• “The central transmission station of the GAC Spirit”
3. • Foundation Courses
• Business English Courses
• Business Operations Courses
• Commercial Courses
• Professional Development and Leadership Courses
• Finance, Quality and Innovation Courses
Editor's Notes
Align your vision and strategy with the organisation’s strategy (become the central transmission station for the corporate culture) to ensure strong foundations.A Corporate University that does not align with the organisational strategy of the corporate it works within is destined to fail.GCA was established in response to the GAC Vision X-Global Reach strategy that set the objective of building Skilful and Motivated People.Our start came from the organisation itself, and established a strong foundation for building the corporate university. Every course aligns directly with the corporate objectives and measurement tools (GAC TIME) to ensure constant alignment.Because of our strong foundations, the GAC President Bjorn Engblom announced that GCA was “the central transmission station of the GAC Spirit.”
Establish a clear governance structure.In building your corporate university and maintain alignment, establishing a clear governance structure is essential.This takes a corporate university from being simply a publicity exercise, or even just brokering training, to being a strategic enabler.In the case of GCA, our Governance Board includes:Chairman - Group Vice President, Human Resources, GACGMM Representative - Group Vice President, Legal, GACSecretary – GCA General ManagerCompany Management Representatives – inc GAC Country Managers and Senior ManagersExternal Specialist – Strategic ConsultantThe benefits of a Governance Board include:Buy-in from GAC senior management on all major decisionsSupport to promote GCA learning programmesAdvocates of GCA from within senior managementContinual alignment with Group strategic direction
A priority for GCA has been to ensure that an explicit commercial structure is established:There are three main corporate learning cost models.The organisation covers the cost of learning programmesCost distribution100% cost recovery/ profit centreIn GCA we have opted for the cost recovery model for the following reasons:To ensure that the corporate university cannot be criticised as being a ‘freeloader’To maintain the continual drive to provide excellent programmes that meet the organisational needs and remain in demand.More here Damien…………………………………………………………
Establish clear methodology for strategic measurement.If the corporate university is aligned with the organisation’s strategic plan, measurement systems will already be in place to measure the outcomes of this strategy. At the primary level, GCA’s achievements are measured against its own strategy which is co-developed with the Governance Board. This strategy includes the following indicators:Financial – “How can we sustain GCA as a financially self-supporting business entity?”Stakeholder – “What quality relationships must GCA create, develop and maintain with valued stakeholders?”Internal Process – “How does GCA deliver enterprise-wide learning and development that enables ‘The GAC Way’?”Learning and Growth – “Where should GCA drive learning and development and support integrated HRM processes?”On the secondary level, GAC’s annual Employee Engagement Survey provides valuable information about how effectively the GCA learning and development programme is being perceived by all levels of the organisation.For any corporate learning programme, Return on Investment is another important measure and this is a crucial current conversation in the learning community… how can we tell what benefits our learning programmes have on profitability of the company? Some of the measures here include:How effectively knowledge is being transferred throughout the organisationHow are learning pathways being developedHow are customer relations being improvedHow is the learning organisation playing a role in the future development of the strategic planHow all this is translating into a more profitable and productive organisation
Choose your learning pedagogy carefully.Learning pedagogy is not the first thing that many people think about when they think of setting up a corporate university. However it is essential for its success.Pedagogy is the science and art of education, and encompasses the learning approach taken by the organisation. There are both teacher-oriented and learner-oriented pedagogies. There are also theoretical versus practical pedagogies. The pedagogy of a corporate university will depend of the vision and objectives.In the case of GCA, where evolving GAC into a ‘learning organisation’ was an objective, social constructivism provided an ideal learning pedagogy.Social constructivism is now one of the dominant pedagogies used in education. It encourages learners to build their own knowledge based on their experience and apply this directly to their environment. The focus is on learning rather than teaching with the individual at the centre of a social process.This works well in a corporate university because it means that people learn alongside their work and can implement what they learn directly into their work practice – it is practical and immediate. It also works well because a powerful way of learning is where people learn from interacting with each other.Alongside the theory of social constructivism comes that of the learning organisation. This is:Where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, Where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, Where collective aspiration is set free, and Where people are continually learning to see the whole together Peter Senge’s “The Fifth Discipline” (1990) Social constructivism and learning organisation theory work hand in hand in many successful corporate universities, and often using the tool of eLearning to enhance both pedagogies. eLearning brings a formalised learning process to participants who do not need to attend a centralised education point. This means GAC employees learning alongside their regular jobs and also have the opportunity to interact in learning communities with people from all over the GAC world in the online forums.
Open source VS off the shelf contentAnother very important consideration in setting up a corporate university is making decisions about course design. There are two key options:Off the shelf content from course design companiesOpen source content developed by your organisation and for your organisation.In following a social constructivist learning pedagogy that is also SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely), GCA learned early on that off the shelf content just doesn’t cut it. Not only is off the shelf content expensive, it is not written with your organisation in mind and does not necessarily relate to the learning needs of your people. GCA has developed a highly effective process for course development that takes just 4 – 6 weeks and results in courses that are directly aligned with the GAC strategic need.Gain buy-in from a senior Course Owner (courses usually come from a direct recommendation from interested management, so buy-in is not difficult)Involve the Course Owner and other key stakeholders with GCA instructional designers in a half-day course design workshop.Instructional Designers draft the course module by module, with feedback provided by Course Owner and stakeholders throughout the process.Courses are piloted with a select group of participants and modules are finalised.
GCA relies on close engagement with our partners from throughout the GAC World and beyond for our success.GLOs are our ambassadors in more than 50 GAC operating companies around the world. Their role is to liaise between GCA and their own people to be our local partners in the learning and development forecasting process, provide nominations for the GCA course portfolio, act as an information source on GCA courses and support course participants.In each of our courses, one or more members of the Senior Management are our stakeholders as course owners. The course initiatives come from their perceived needs, and from there they play an active role in designing the course, reviewing the content and marketing the courses.Within each course, there are members of Management and Senior Management who act as ambassadors of each course module. They provide a welcome video to the course participants, lending weight to the importance of that module for GAC business performance.Subject Matter Experts work with the Course Owners in the course design and writing process to ensure the content aligns directly with GAC strategy and practice. In some courses like GAC Finance Essentials, these Subject Matter Experts then play a role in providing expert support alongside the facilitators within the courses.External agnostic facilitators work with each of our eLearning courses and workshops to guide interaction and support participant learning. Our facilitators receive continual training in best practice eLearning facilitation.
