When
I wrote the corporate universities chapter for CIPD’s Learning and Development
subscription manual (published 2007, but no longer available), I wrote: “That is not to say that the corporate
university (CU)
is the sole preserve of the large
corporation. The larger the
organisation, the easier it should be to establish a successful CU, but
small-to-medium-sized organisations can also benefit from this sort of
approach, and can also aspire to their own CU. Where
potential learner numbers are small,
as with organisations employing fewer than 1000 people, then
partnership working can help achieve
the critical mass needed”.
In
the six years since I wrote that, through a global recession, the argument has
become more compelling.
In
the same piece, I suggested “training
vendors, or traditional universities, or economic development bodies, may be
able to catalyse collaborations among geographical neighbours, companies in the
same sectors, or organisations with similarities but no
directly competing interests”.
This
ought to be the way ahead, but catalysts are needed.
In a
few weeks, I shall be acting as a catalyst and announcing a proof-of-concept project for a new academy
based on a collaboration among like-minded organisations. Among the benefits we anticipate are:
- Better value support services for people development (directors, employees and volunteers).
-
Lower cost learning and development, through
sharing resources with the other partners.
- A marketplace to sell learning services devised by each partner to the other partners and to wider audiences
(charitable, public and private).
- A branded online learning platform at low cost.
- A share in income from selling online services and spare places on courses to a wider audience.
For
further reading, see:
and two
of the tools in my book 101 Learning & Development Tools
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