Formed in 1995 by 13 non-competing Fortune 500 corporations, LearnShare gives organizations the ability to share training and professional development research, expertise and resources. We were a charter member of LearnShare, because we wanted to share existing programs with others and have their programs shared with us to reduce the cycle time of program acquisition, to reduce the costs and be able to customize quickly, says Bill Wiggenhorn, president of Motorola University. By buying in volume, LearnShare members savings on vendor contracts can reach 20 percent or more. Since much training does not vary from one manufacturer to another, companies can cut consulting costs, reduce training redundancies and minimize equipment costs. Members use the LearnShare Web site to access e-learning providers to bring uniform, advanced career development and training courses to their employees throughout the world.
Members also share proprietary research results and collaborate to solve problems.
Being able to collaborate with other members on issues has been a huge benefit for us, says John Mallin, leader, learning and development, at Owens Corning, and LearnShare s co-chairperson. We also scheduled visits to Pfizer and General Motors University. Lois Webster, director of Motorola University Business Systems Integration, joined LearnShare as general manager in January 2001. She says that the member companies have different approaches but all have the same goal in mind. We don t have common models within the consortium, but all of the companies are investing in one way or another in e-learning and using LearnShare as a way to accelerate their ability to change their culture.