Peter Calopedos from Qantas visits UTS E-Learning class
Peter Calopedos, the Manager of Business Development, People Business Services at Qantas Airways paid a visit today, to e-Learning students at the University of Technology, Sydney.
His visit was welcomed by all the students in the E-Learning Experiences class at 11am, as they looked forward to seeing what kind of commercial opportunities could be available with e-Learning – and also to see whether e-Learning really works in “the real world”.
To my relief – it does.
I was impressed with Peter’s presentation skills and his ability to argue for the viability of e-Learning in businesses – in which, I guess he’s been doing for a while, as he works in the field.
Peter began his presentation with the structure of Qantas. He explained that Qantas had a staff of 38,000 dispersed around the world, with an enormous 95% of them in Australia. He further explained that Qantas is made up of 10 separate and accountable business segments (e.g. Jet Star, engineering and catering). Each business segment is responsible for itself and they usually have their own Training Requirements and in some cases Training Departments. Peter’s department, works with and co-ordinates Training initiatives with these different business segments.
Peter went on to explain the history behind Qantas’ Online Learning initiative. Qantas College was established in 1994, and Online Learning was initiated in 1997. The need for Online training came from having restricted access to outsourced Training Programs. This meant that staff from various parts of Australia and the rest of the world could not have access to training as most outsourced training was conducted by smaller expert companies. After looking at various alternatives, within the technological limitations of 1990’s technology, Qantas decided to implement a Learning Management System (LMS) based on web technology. In its first year, there were 70-80 completions of online courses which to this day continues to grow.
In the early days, to motivate staff into undertaking online training courses, Qantas decided to eliminate all classroom training. This, in hindsight did not work very well. As a result, Qantas decided to give the option of having classroom or online training to employees. Afterwards, they internally marketed online training courses to both management and employees.
Other challenges faced by Peter at this stage included the following:
- Ensuring that all employees have access to the appropriate training
- Ensuring that all employees know how to use the online training courses by having Learning Centres that teach people how to use the computers.
Peter further explained the advantages of Online Learning in organisations, and how to measure those advantages. As I come from an Accounting background, this part of Peter’s presentation really interested me. I understand the possible reluctance of management to support Online Training Programs such as this, because of the financial costs and the uncertain return. Peter explained that the driving force of the success of Online Learning in Qantas was the focus on people rather than the “bottom-line” financial figure. Peter further explained that for some training courses, the measure of success was based upon the number of course completions in Qantas; rather than their impact on financial figures. However, he also highlighted some financial benefits of Online Learning. They were:
- Saving the cost of time lost. In the past with classroom training, Qantas has had to pay the employees who were being trained as well as paying another covering employee at the rate of double time. With Online Learning, Qantas saves money by having staff complete training courses at their desks, in or outside their hours of work.
- “Speed to Market” is increased. In the past, with every new regulation, Qantas has had to ensure staff knowledge is updated by having paper-based learning materials sent to various locations around the world. Once read, these documents return to Head Office with a signature, declaring that all relevant employees have read them. This in the end meant a large cost in time and postage. With Qantas’ LMS in place, regular updates can be posted and accessed all around, with the documents being presented in PDF form.
In the end, it was a really helpful and motivational presentation for me, as Peter showed us how the content in class can be applied successfully in business.
Calopedos, P. 2006, Class Presentation April, 2006. Sydney, Australia.
