As I begin my time as ASA president, I look forward to getting out and visiting with many of you at valuable industry gatherings such as the various buying group meetings, regional events, ASA networking council meetings and other important events throughout 2016. 

One of the main topics of conversation will be the impact and growth of ASA University and how our association is succeeding in training an industry.

ASA University is the only training resource dedicated solely to the PHCP-PVF industry. Each year, ASA-U’s offerings expand with updated content, resources and course offerings to further support our members and their ability to increase productivity, profitability and safety.

The five colleges of ASA University help drive content to the industry. Each college contains roles within the distribution supply chain. Within the roles you’ll find: job descriptions, on-the-job assessments and a training track that has a curriculum fully focused on developing an employee within their current role or for a future position.  Please visit ASA Education Foundation for more on what the five colleges can do for those within your firm in need of any type of training.

Over the past five years, more than 7,000 employees have been trained and more than 33,000 courses have been taken online through ASA University. Within that timeframe, a total of 28,000 training hours have been completed.  Last year alone there were 12,988 courses taken through ASA University online and currently there are 276 courses available online through ASA-U with 28 role-based training tracks available. These are some extraordinary numbers and they don’t even take into account the many new educational offerings available to ASA members.

Recently introduced and becoming enormously successful are ASA-U’s Advisory Service and its Master of Distribution Management (MDM) certification programs. The Advisory Service can help establish a company-wide training program, create a “change management” plan, assist with training rollout and implementation and much more. 

The MDM is a comprehensive, multi-format program focused on developing the industry’s top talent. The program has five phases and works similarly to many university master’s degree programs. The master’s curriculum is a mix of core and elective courses presented in varied formats.  After all core and elective hours are completed, MDM students must complete a final assessment to qualify for a capstone project and earn their master’s honor. The final assessment and capstone project is a culmination of all the learning, training and mentoring received during the MDM program. The program will see its first graduates in 2016, which is quite exciting to say the least!

These are only a few snapshots of the large variety of programs currently available to the industry. Watch for more throughout 2016. In today’s competitive environment, if you are not utilizing these valuable programs and services, you should strongly be considering it. Please contact Amy Black and the ASA University team today at 630/467-0000 to learn more. 

It could very well be the best investment of time and money you can currently make in your business.