e-learning takes off at BAE Systems: saves £1.5m per year

BAE Systems’ global ‘virtual university’ (VU), established in 1998, is now being made accessible to the firm’s employees and joint venture companies globally. Other developments include full integration of the Thomson NETg LMS (Learner Management System) with the VU, allowing managers to better track training usage levels. The system is being used at all levels: BAE says it is migrating 70—80,000 desktop computers from Windows NT to Windows XP so that, for the first time, the organisation will have a common operating system and applications throughout – and Thomson NETg will be used for all training. Thomson NETg is also working with BAE to create customised BAE courses for employees due to switch from Outlook ’97 to Outlook 2003 in October. The courses will capture only what is different between the two applications, streamlining training. BAE is also creating ‘timely training’ where employees can type in a training question that will bring up a range of answers. Example include a short training module or an answer from a frequently asked question sheet etc, and again the training module content will be provided by Thomson NETg. Around 28,000 employees visit BAE’s VU regularly and there are an average of 12,000 website hits a day. In comparison with traditional instructor-led training, the use of Thomson NETg’s e-Learning is helping to achieve a 67% cost reduction per training intervention. And with the integration of all its learning resources, BAE Systems reckons it’s saving over £1.5 million per year