For Immediate Release

New ASQ Learning Institute™ Unveiled

Education and Training System is One-Stop Shop for Quality Professionals

Milwaukee, Wis., June 29, 2009 —ASQ (American Society for Quality) has launched the ASQ Learning Institute™ to help quality professionals obtain the education and training needed to stay competitive in a struggling economy and beyond. The ASQ Learning Institute is a comprehensive professional-development resource that provides users with the quality concepts, technologies, and tools to improve themselves, their organizations, and their world. For more about the ASQ Learning Institute, visit www.asq.org/learninginstitute.

The ASQ Learning Institute will house all of ASQ’s learning offerings in one convenient location and will be the seamless integration of training resources between ASQ headquarters, member communities, education professionals, and members. Encompassing all learning events throughout the Society, the system will ensure consistent course delivery and empower users to coordinate and track their learning progress. As an added benefit, ASQ members (Full, Senior, Fellow, and Honorary) will have free access to system features that include:

• Competency Assessment: Provides a structured list of knowledge, skills, and abilities that serves as a foundation for users to map the level of competencies needed for various job functions.
• Career Planner: With multiple learning activities available, the career planner can help learners develop a curriculum roadmap for professional development.
• Learning Plan: This personalized plan that provides a detailed description of user activities to help learners achieve their education goals.
• ASQ Learning Institute Calendar: Provides a clear view of all the professional development opportunities over an 18-month period.

"The ASQ Learning Institute represents a great change in the way that the Society approaches education and training," said Roberto Saco, president of ASQ. "The system empowers members to obtain training when and where they need it."

A centerpiece of the system is the learning management system, which will allow members to create a learner profile, learning plan, and track their learning history. Both members and nonmembers will be able to access features such as the learning catalog and the ASQ Learning Institute Calendar.

The Making of the ASQ Learning Institute
In October 2005, the need to create a unified vision for how the Society carries out its education and training emerged from a Member Leader Summit. The previous system, where HQ, sections, divisions, and forums all operated independently, lacked standardization and failed to maximize ASQ’s talents and capabilities. As a result, the ASQ Learning Institute was developed and approved by the ASQ Board of Directors.

It was determined that ASQ would start with a clean slate and develop a vision and long view for its training and education efforts. It needed to be modern, something responsive to the needs of customers and members, and something that makes the best use of ASQ’s tremendous talents and capabilities.

ASQ, www.asq.org, has been the world’s leading authority on quality for more than 60 years. With more than 90,000 individual and organizational members, the professional association advances learning, quality improvement and knowledge exchange to improve business results and to create better workplaces and communities worldwide. As a champion of the quality movement, ASQ offers technologies, concepts, tools and training to quality professionals, quality practitioners and everyday consumers, encouraging all to Make Good Great®. ASQ has been the sole administrator of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award since 1991. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., ASQ is a founding partner of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), a prominent quarterly economic indicator, and also produces the Quarterly Quality Report.