Matt Hammer, Vivid Learning Systems CEO, sits in the company’s production area, where the company creates many of their online training courses. Since the company’s beginning in 1994, Hammer has continued to see growth in the online training market.
By Elena Olmstead for TCAJOB
As the Internet continues to grow as both a resource and a tool, large corporations are always finding new ways to utilize it to streamline their in-house training regimes.
That’s where Pasco’s Vivid Learning Systems steps in.
The company has spent nearly 20 years as a pioneer in the field of the creation, implementation and delivery of cutting-edge, computer-based training programs. They have an extensive library of training programs that cover a variety of elements in fields that range from food safety and mining to health care and general manufacturing.
And if a company can’t find the training curriculum they’re looking for, Vivid Learning Systems will help them create it.
It’s an industry that has continued to grow since the Pasco company first came together in 1994. Vivid Learning Systems was started when a group of eight Westinghouse employees who were tasked with creating training and safety programs for Hanford, got together and determined they could perform the same duties less expensively outside of the umbrella of the Hanford contractor.
Vivid Learning Systems was born and the company launched its first product in 1997.
Since then the company has grown as technology as grown, working with companies to facilitate online training that keeps up with the latest technologies.
“Online training is a growth industry,” said Matt Hammer, Vivid Learning Systems CEO. “As the Internet becomes more widely adopted in industries, online training has become a more viable solution to training versus instructor led training.”
Hammer said at the moment Vivid Learning Systems target market is businesses with more than 5,000 employees, though they are starting to adapt some of the curriculum for smaller businesses.
For these larger clients training is a very important part of business and something that can be costly. It take resources to bring in an instructor, schedule time for thousands of employees to go through the training while the instructor is in house and keeping track to ensure that everyone who needed to undergo the training did.
Online training programs, like those created by Vivid Learning Systems, make that easier.
“It can be more efficient and more effective,” Hammer said.
Now companies simply chose a curriculum from Vivid Learning Systems’ extensive library and employees fit the training into their schedule. And if a company wants to customize one of the trainings Vivid Learning Systems already has available, Hammer said it’s something they are more than happy to do. If companies don’t see a curriculum they feel fits their exact needs or if they need training classes created for in house policies, then his team is able to work with them to create a customized curriculum to fit their needs.
Using an online training program also makes it easier for companies with multiple locations, ensuring that everyone receives the same quality of training. Hammer said the Vivid Learning Systems curriculums make it possible for their clients to check in and see who has taken the training and how their employees are doing with the curriculum.
This can be an important feature because, Hammer said, many of the companies using these trainings are audited by organizations such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. And having records that show that employees have undergone specific training regimes can be important.
Hammer said another reason online training seems to be thriving is because younger generations are starting to make an impact in industry and many of them turn to the Internet for their main source of information. So online training seems to go hand-in-hand with that.
As the market for online training continues to grow, Hammer said his company is starting to see more and more clients asking for a blended approach to training. He said his company can organize virtual instructor-led trainings, giving clients the best of both worlds, using a live instructor but having the training delivered through a technology platform.
At the moment, Hammer said, Vivid Learning Systems has managed to carve out a niche for itself in five primary markets including the utility industry, general manufacturing, health care, government and mining. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have clients that don’t fit into those specific categories, for example, Hammer said they provide Nevada’s Clark County with food safety training, meaning that all of the county workers take Vivid Learning Systems’ courses.
And within those markets, Hammer said, they seem to have two primary categories of online training – regulatory compliance and safety. That has led the company to accumulate a library of more than 500 courses.
Hammer said as the company continues to grow and expand, they are starting to look at ways to begin offering their services to small and medium-sized companies.
“The demand there is going to grow,” Hammer said.
And they are starting to prepare.
The first step will be taking the company’s current courses and scaling them to fit their new perspective clients.
The other area they see a chance for continued growth is in the global marketplace.
“It’s our ability to go in and localize our training that is key,” Hammer said.
He said they will have to go through their library and customize it for different areas around the world, looking at everything from translations to cultural nuances.
“This industry is still in its infancy,” Hammer said. “And there are also a lot of niche markets out there. The niches are where you become the standard.”
For example, he said when Vivid Learning Systems first joined the market in 1994 there wasn’t any online training company that was providing training services for the mining industry. It was a niche market the Pasco company began to explore. Now Vivid sets the industry standard for training in that field.
Growth has definitely been a trend for Vivid Learning Systems, a company that was started with six employees, and now has 65.
For more information on Vivid Learning Systems, located at 5728 Bedford St. in Pasco, call them at 545-1800 or visit their website at www.vividlearningsystems.com.
