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e-learning and know how | Virtual University |
| e-learning and Know How within BAE Systems |
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The rapid pace of market and technological developments in the defence and aerospace industries have required the development of new capabilities and partnerships, new innovative ways of working, and greater organisational agility in responding to the needs of customers and marketplace. A cornerstone of the company's approach to addressing these challenges has been its ongoing investment in organisational learning and the development of its people, as reflected in the People Value, and the investment made in the company's Virtual University.
The BAE HR strategy clearly reflects these challenges by focusing on ensuring that BAE have the necessary talent, and they create and sustain a performance culture, and that the company is organised in the most effective way. Learning - the competitive edge The VU is a gateway to know how; a dynamic library of information that can be accessed by individuals from across BAE Systems. The VU recognises that the growth of e-learning and the use of internet based knowledge management tools is vital. The VU plays a major role in collecting and making available best practice and examples of excellence from across the company. It has become a conduit for good ideas that might otherwise never be shared company-wide. Underpinning the Virtual University strategy is a scalable IT infrastructure designed to deliver organisational learning and know-how company wide and cope with numerous legacy computer systems and complex networks. It was clear from the VU's launch that if the company Intranet had not already been in place, the VU would have had to create it. E-learning and web technology were the only rational solution to creating affordable access to a continuous learning environment for over 100,000 employees, working at over 60 sites across the UK alone, and many more abroad. Every employee now has access to the VU and it's e-based services from a desk-top computer or by visiting the nearest Learning Resource Centre. The VU and its Integrated Development Portfolio receives over 12,000 hits a day and remains the most popular site on the Intranet. Learning is an every day event Though important, courses are not enough. The VU's thinking is that, to truly drive competitiveness through learning, access to wider sources of learning - such as best practice, know-how, research and even expertise, personalised to an individuals or team needs, available at the right time - would be needed. Such thinking was reinforced by a significant drive from the Chief Executive to get more return on the investment the company had made in its intranet. The VU aim was to provide employees with the learning, know-how or information that they sought, and where they could simultaneously be offered a customised opportunity, to be alerted in the future to what they did not know but would want to know. The VU has now pioneered the deployment of it's Intelligent Learning Portal (VuFinder) via a three-tiered approach. First, employees can search across organisational sources such as the intranet, shared drives, learning, People and best practice databases as well as premium news sources and people sources. This intelligent search and retrieval receives over 6000 web hits a day. Secondly, individuals can enter a particular web-site centre of excellence (such as manufacturing, engineering, customer solutions) and be networked immediately into relevant opportunities for educational development, potential mentors and links to complementary centres of business excellence and job placements across the company. Thirdly, the ability to create a virtual and global network of people who as "colleagues" asking the same questions or seek a common answer. These are all potential knowledge brokers. The full integration, exploitation, and leverage of the selected databases, along with the know-how emerging from individual's local and global experiences in diverse businesses, are the strategic goals of the VU in its knowledge brokering role. Utilising this smart retrieval technology has been a quantum step forward. But achieving the ultimate business performance requires can-do attitudes and willingness to share best practices, to over come the barrier of any "not-invented-here" syndromes. The VU's edge technology implementation directly supports the VU's overall strategic direction and through this blend of technology, and supporting processes such as Best Practice Detectives, Chairman's Award for Innovation and the Best Practice Forum, the company can already point to over £50 million pounds worth of savings. Richard West : richard.west@baesystems.com  VU Home Page Touching Lives E-learning and Know How Organisation Business Benefit
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