What’s in a name?

For Fox Valley Technical College’s Learning Innovations team, recently changing its name to eLearning & Technology Solutions felt essential to better reflect what it does for the college and its clients: create training tools and learning solutions that will evolve with our ever-changing workforce.

For the past 19 years, employers have tapped FVTC’s team of instructional design experts to develop customized programs that they can use to help onboard, upskill and grow their workforce. But post-pandemic, the eLearning & Technology Solutions team has seen an uptick in requests for newer tools to support a new workforce. With staff working from home, in remote locations, or maybe even back in the office, there is more demand for training tools that can be delivered in multiple different ways, and be accessible to everyone, regardless of where they work.

“We often get asked what our team does. In simplest terms, the work we do leads to a better workforce,” says Jay Stulo, director of eLearning & Technology Solutions. “Being a part of an educational institution, we are experts at teaching and designing tools that help others learn. We work with businesses and industries to identify issues that are holding back their teams. We then create instinctive learning experiences to remedy those issues.”

The eLearning & Technology Solutions team has worked with clients spanning the globe: from Miller Electric and Wisconsin Children’s Court Improvement Program to the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children and Zebra Technologies. It all began in 2003 with its first client, Pierce Manufacturing. Since then, the eLearning team continues to help Pierce resolve training challenges the manufacturing industry faces.

“As a large company with many projects to get accomplished, Fox Valley Technical College has been a great partner to help create training videos, write content and help problem solve,” says Jamie Boettcher, employee training manager at Pierce. “FVTC’s clean results, quick turn-around times and competitive pricing made the choice to partner with them a simple decision.”

Training tools designed by eLearning & Technology Solutions and available to employers run the gamut, such as augmented reality/virtual reality training, 2D/3D animation and modeling, instructional videos, and rapid prototyping/concepting, to name a few.

In 2021, the team created a mobile application for the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (DEC) that uses geotagging to connect children endangered by drug use with resources within their own zip code. By clicking on the app, those at risk can connect directly to real services.

“We had the idea and vision, but we didn’t have the technical expertise,” explains Scott Henderson, executive director of the National DEC. “We went out and found the experts. They understood our mission and scope, and it was not daunting to them because we’d worked together before.”

Along with the name change, eLearning & Technology Solutions has launched a new website to highlight its servicing and training options, share details of recent client projects and create a place where future clients can request help with their training needs.

“This is about more than us changing our name,” Jay says. “This is about eLearning & Technology Solutions being mindful of our current workforce, the ever-changing needs of our employers and using our pioneering learning tools to best serve our clients.”