Article Excerpt from:
Lend Me Your Ears: Stories from all sides of the classroom
T+D Magazine - February 2005 - p. 65-66
By Josephine Rossi
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Successful classrooms I also came across the story of MicroTek, which offers ready-to-use training facilities and support staff in 1000 classrooms worldwide. The San Francisco-based company specializes in going above and beyond for the trainers and students who use its facilities.
Founder Don Slivensky got the idea to start the niche company from his experiences providing training logistics for the Eastman Kodak Company. Fed up with rental computers, ill-equipped hotel conference rooms, power failures, and other obstacles, Slivensky realized that a full-service training facility would solve those problems.
His classrooms offer high-tech amenities and an accommodating staff that’s ready to help in a crisis. MicroTek staff is known to sew on loose buttons for instructors, bake cookies, babysit pets, and even fix flat tires for trainers—all in an effort to make learning an enjoyable and stress-free experience.
“You have to understand that a lot of these trainers have lonely lives,” says Laura Bialkowski, manager of the Washington, D.C., facility. “They travel three weeks out the month…. So, we like to create an environment where they feel comfortable. If the instructors and students are happy, everyone wins.”
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The complete article is available here after free registration: http://www.astd.org/astd/Publications/TD_Magazine/2005_pdf/76050265.htm