The university is composed of twelve colleges that support the businesses, supply chain and enabling functions of the company. Today, Air Products University offers training and development in an integrated fashion that has reduced redundancies and created a “one company” approach to learning.

Rebecca Bechtel Manager, People College, Americas

At the Trexlertown campus, 18-year employee, Rebecca L. Bechtel has responsibility for the former HR Training and Development group, now the People College-Americas region. Bechtel has peers in Europe and Asia who manage their respective regions People College. The three regions now work together as the People College to identify employee training needs based on the company's business strategies. Instead of developing separate regional or local curricula, as in the past, the three regional managers work together to identify global, regional and local needs, partnering to build a curriculum that addresses the professional development needs of all employees.

An important area of focus for the global People College this year has been in the area of management and leadership development. Bechtel says, “For Air Products to achieve continued growth, we must recruit people from within who can become the leaders of tomorrow, and we must retain these employees and keep them relevant, ready for the next step. It is important for us to use development practices that engage and challenge our people, helping to shape them into strong leaders, contributing to the company's success.”

APCI's corporate university model allows more alignment of messages, balance among regions and departments and continuity of learning with a brand focus, more than traditional training department models. Whereas traditional models approach employee development as singular events, and disconnected training efforts, the APCI University 's approach to learning is an ongoing, strategic process linked to changing business needs. “Our regions and businesses may be at different points in their life cycle. The university approach allows for those differences, but at the same time, enables us to develop training that is globally aligned, but still takes into account the regional, local and specific business needs. It provides more flexibility than in the past, but also helps us drive more alignment.” says Bechtel.

The People College-Americas group is responsible for regional and global training and development. With 11,000 people in the Americas region, and more than 20,000 employees globally, the People College provides training and development services that encompass management and leadership development, professional development for all employees in the areas of communications, cultural competence, language skills, career development, performance and development assessments and educational assistance. The university model allows the People College to gain efficiencies from elimination of redundant programs, consolidation of vendors, aligning learning to global business strategies, and to take advantage of technology and blended learning approaches that within a region alone may be cost and administratively prohibitive.

“When we adopted the university concept, we created a virtual, aligned educational umbrella,” said Bechtel. “The three regions have come together and organized consistent messaging in our curriculum, aligned to the corporate mission and long-term goals. We each had different issues and concerns, but were able to talk through them and build relationships that have brought us to alignment around our mission.” Some programs are global, saving cost and time, ensuring greater alignment among the regions, and creating consistent competencies around the globe.

Northampton Community College 's Leadership Development Institute partnered with an internal Air Products People College design team to develop the new Management Fundamentals Program, an example of how this new People College partnership works. “In the past each region would have taken their own approach, covered their own topics, used different models, tools, etc. Now we work towards a single approach, delivered globally.” said Bechtel.

Participants for this program are all individuals who are transitioning to the role of manager or supervisor for the first time. Completed over one-year, the program begins with a 5-day Orientation Program to the role of management, followed by 14 courses taken through eCornell. Over the one year period, participants come together every three months for a teleconference that allows for open discussion of how they've successfully applied their new learning and any challenges they are facing. Faculty members are on the calls with participants to help them work out their challenges and ensure that application of the learning is taking place and people are making forward progress as expected.

“Management Fundamentals is one example of how the People College has taken advantage of technology and distance instead of allowing it to be a barrier to learning. This program is being delivered in China, Spain, Brussels, Korea, the UK and the US with equal success,” says Bechtel. Technology has allowed the People College to more easily address employees at field locations around the US, Asia and Europe, bringing learning to the worksite at the employees convenience.

“The focus on programs to develop strong new managers is crucial,” said Bechtel. “One study we've seen cites a 62% failure rate for first-time managers. The first step to building an organization's sustainability is achieving success for this group of people. They are on the front-lines with our employees. The skills, knowledge and attitudes that these first line supervisors bring to the workplace impacts our employees ability to perform, and obviously impacts the company's ability to be successful.”

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