The ASA Education Team and ASA University strive to meet the ever-evolving educational needs of our members. Our goal is to ensure ASA members are both staffed and equipped to support business needs through strong leadership, astute business and product acumen, and exceptional customer service.

ASA University meets member needs through our vast course offerings in business operations, product knowledge and soft skills. We continually commit to ensuring our infrastructure and member involvement supports our goals of providing best-in-class training.

As we begin the new year, ASA University is celebrating our achievements over the past year in furthering learning and development for our members. To make sure you’re taking advantage of all ASA has to offer, read on as we share what’s new and exciting from ASA University.

ASA UNIVERSITY IS YOUR IN-POCKET ADVISOR ON EDUCATION

ASA goes above and beyond when it comes to our members’ education needs. This past year we have helped numerous members to train their associates, resulting in money saved, productivity increase and retention of top talent. We have engaged more than 100 distributor members in 2022 alone and have our sights set to do it again in 2023 – and then some!

As part of the benefit of ASA membership, ASA University advisors are at your disposal – whether you need to develop an onboarding program, upskill tenured employees, or are just starting your training journey, we have the expertise to help. We can also customize a training plan just for your needs. ASA-U advisors have a wealth of expertise, resources and strategies to create a training plan that will target your specific needs.

Be sure to follow us on social media and read ASA’s weekly newsletter to keep up with all the work ASA University is doing to enhance training and development for our members. ASA University is here to support our members and provide the best customer service, to help not only our members but their employees and help them grow in their business.

ASA UNIVERSITY CHAMPIONS TALENT RECRUITMENT TOOLS AND STRATEGIES

In addition to training existing employees, recruiting talent is equally critical to a company’s long-term success. The need to attract talent to the plumbing and PVF distribution industry has never been greater, and that need is what led to one of ASA’s key strategic initiatives, PROJECT TALENT.

The mission for PROJECT TALENT is to increase the number of qualified workers taking advantage of attractive career opportunities in the PHCP/PVF Industry. To support this need, ASA is conducting a multi-faceted campaign to brand our industry as an exciting and innovative area to start, build and develop a career through social media, email marketing and the provision of high-quality tools and resources available to ASA members through the online Recruiter Toolbox.

With the help of a group of ASA volunteers and a newly hired recruitment marketing director, 2023 plans are underway to refine messaging to further create interest and awareness of the industry, as well as expose members to the tools available to help them compete with countless other industries in a challenging labor market.

INAUGURAL ASA-UTRAINER’S BEST PRACTICES FORUM–A SMASH HIT!

Training a company’s labor force has taken on greater importance as every company is expanding its ability to develop their teams to remain competitive and relevant. To support ASA trainers and their ability to leverage the best learning and development programs in their companies, the association conducted the first-ever ASA Trainer’s Best Practice Forum.

Training personnel came together to share best practices, discuss challenges and take away great ideas from fellow trainers. The forum’s keynote speakers featured notable learning and development professional and international speaker, Shannon Tipton of Learning Rebels, along with a seasoned training leader in the logistics field, Jason Berry of Echo Global Logistics. Discussions ranged from onboarding methodology to dealing with learner objections, and everything in-between.

The event drew extremely high praise from participants, noting the conversation with industry peers was invaluable to helping expand their training knowledge and walk away with valuable ideas to grow and enhance their own training programs.

ASA University looks forward to offering this program once again in 2023. More details and save-the-date will be hitting inboxes soon.

ASA UNIVERSITY PUBLISHES “HOW TO DEVELOP ANEFFECTIVE TRAINING PROGRAM” HANDBOOK

ASA University’s newest resource for members, the How to Develop an Effective Training Program Handbook, puts the power in your hands to create, shape, improve and promote your own training program – even for the leanest of teams.

This FREE resource for our members is authored by industry experts and covers the major tenets of building your own effective training program — all framed within the realities of our industry and its unique challenges. This resource puts you in the driver’s seat and provides a roadmap that can be scaled up or down to implement training at your business, no matter the resources at your disposal.

Through storytelling and connecting real-life experiences to best practices, read how your industry peers addressed challenges, overcame hurdles, and celebrated success in their own training initiatives.

Request your free copy today by emailing us at education@asa.net.

BUILDING A LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO SUPPORT MEMBER EDUCATION NEEDS

In October of 2021, ASA University moved to a new home in D2L Brightspace. Over the course of 2022, we worked hard to ensure everything worked as anticipated and members had a streamlined and easy- to-use portal for their trainees.

One newly added feature was access for training managers to ASA-U’s Manager Dashboard, allowing them to view team member course progress and completions. Accountability is a cornerstone of training management, and ASA University makes it easy to get a real-time picture of your learners with a few clicks. Perfect for coaching sessions or providing feedback at review time, keeping tabs on your learners is essential to recouping your ROI on training investment.

Our manufacturer product knowledge library inside Brightspace has grown by leaps and bounds in the past year, with close to 20 different manufacturers offering more than 115 different products. Accessible directly from within Brightspace, content is continually added to this library and is entirely free for all ASA distributor members and manufacturer reps. Reach out to the ASA University team at education@asa.net to enroll your employees in this free, easy-to-use training.

Follow us on social media to see timely announcements for new courses, vendors and content added to our manufacturer education library.

PARLEZ-VOUSFRANÇAIS? ASA SERVES EXPANDED MEMBER POPULATIONS

Over the course of the past year and a half, ASA ventured into foreign territory. Literally. When one of our members doing business in Canada faced a challenge with mandatory training compliance for French speakers at their organization, ASA University boldly jumped into the fray.

We partnered with our member to translate 17 ASA University ProductPro courses into French- Canadian language – a project that culminated this past fall with the release of these fully-translated courses,availabletoallmembers.IfyouhavelearnersordobusinessinCanada,considerreachingout to us at education@asa.net to find out how you can gain access to these international courses from ASA-U.

SpecialprojectssuchasASA’stranslationeffortsabovereflectourdedicationtosupportingthevaried needs of our members and their teams. No matter what your challenge is, ASA University can help!

ASA-U PARTNERS WITH NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTORS ON EDUCATION

ASA University announced an educational partnership with the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) in bringing ASA members five brand-new eLearning courses via ASA-U.

Through the combined resources of ASA University and NAED, ASA members gained access to courses previously only available with NAED membership. Course topics added include gaining buy-in from key contributors at your business, generational differences in the workplace, the basics of electrical distribution along with customer service roleplay scenarios for counter sales staff and delivery drivers.

On the flip side, NAED members can now take advantage of several of ASA-U’s flagship courses through their membership with NAED. Cross-pollination of training resources serve to deepen our offerings and expand the scope of members we assist with our training.

WANT TO GET INVOLVED WITH ASA UNIVERSITY?

Reach out to us anytime at education@asa.net and let us know how we can help! A friendly ASA-U advisor will provide white-glove treatment as we tackle your training challenges – together. We’re just a quick email or phone call away!

MEET THE ASA UNIVERSITY TEAM

General Inquiries: education@asa.net