With almost 1,300 members organized into 50 local chapters throughout the United States, the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA) represents the precision custom manufacturing industry. Dedicated to supporting the profitable growth of members in industries ranging from aerospace to electronics and nuclear power, NTMA’s members represent more than $30 billion in sales. Like all great associations, NTMA believes that supporting the continuing professional development of its members helps everyone in the organization to thrive. Supporting a fast growing association As NTMA is a non-profit organization that provides workforce development training to members, it’s key goal is to provide those members with the right training. As a fast growing business, NTMA faced a wide range of challenges. They knew that recognizing and overcoming the common challenges associated with growth would enable them to continue to meet their customers’ evolving needs. NTMA found that while there are hundreds of LMS products available, not all of them would suit their needs. There were a number of technical requirements they wanted the online learning platform to meet. They had over 600 educational YouTube videos so their chosen online learning solution needed to be able to handle this multimedia content. Additionally, they required the ability to manage members at different learning levels. And they also needed a wide range of automation around features like the grading of assessments and the awarding of certificates, so they could reduce time spent completing manual training tasks. Choosing a user-friendly solution At an association level, many of their existing LMS’s features were superfluous to NTMA’s needs and actually distracted from the learning experience. “I had used Blackboard previously within a very different learning and training environment, as a Dean of STEM. My contrasting experiences with Blackboard in a college versus association organization has been instructive. While Blackboard can be very useful within environments that have a specific set of requirements, it's not the best choice for an association like NTMA.” Ken McCreight, Vice President of NTMA So, whatever LMS they decided on, had to be a user-friendly system that didn’t come with unnecessary features that complicated the learner experience. And, as a result, LearnUpon was more than equipped to meet their needs. “When I went in search of an alternative, I found that LearnUpon had all the features a learner would need as well as all the features I needed to be a successful administrator. The ease of use for both learners and administrators is unmatched by any other LMS. We quickly realized that LearnUpon was the right choice.” Ken McCreight, Vice President of NTMA NTMA also found LearnUpon’s customer support to be outstanding, prompt and very comprehensive. “One of LearnUpon's great strengths is their support team. The way they respond almost instantly helps us to manage the administration, delivery, tracking and reporting of our online classes very effectively.” Ken McCreight, Vice President of NTMA Reducing training admin time and costs NTMA found LearnUpon’s features to be highly beneficial for them. Automation means they now enjoy the ability to automatically issue certificates, that identify a member’s grade, upon successful completion of a module or course. This minimizes time-consuming manual work, saving countless hours in resourcing and admin. LearnUpon enabled them to organize course content for a range of learner audiences. While access to accurate training data and reports on learner performance enabled them to measure results, and forecast demand for future modules. All of which helped them to make their Learning and Development processes more efficient and impactful. Within a short period, they went from selling 30 training modules to selling over 1,200 modules to members per year. LearnUpon played a vital role in driving and supporting this expansion, enabling them to maximize this opportunity as they transitioned to the successful Learning and Development programs they offer today. Choosing LearnUpon has helped NTMA in reducing admin cost, increasing productivity, and engaging their learners.