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TEMPE, ARIZ. - In a generalbusiness environment that gives lip service but not much cash to employee training, Motorola University stands out as a flower in the desert.
Motorola Inc. requires its 139,000 employees to take 40 hours of training a year. It's a firm commitment to technical and career development rarely seen in the technology industry.
One Motorola policy, for example, ensures that bosses don't renege on promises to send their people for training: The manager's department is charged for a worker's training even if the worker doesn't show up. That gets managers' attention, said Tom Lorig, director of Motorola University North America.
Only three years old, the Phoenix-area Motorola University West building attracts 75,000 engineers, business staffers and non-Motorolans a year. It's one of five such centers around the country. The others are in Boca Raton, Fla; Schaumburg, Ill.; Austin, Texas; and Boston. Each specializes in a business or technology that supports the local Motorola facility but also attracts Motorola staff from around the world.
About 1,000 people a day pass through the sleek, 100,000square foot, two-story building located here on former farmland leased from of Arizona State University. Motorola University West specializes in project management, information technology, software engineering, manufacturing engineering and Motorola's famous Six Sigma quality courses, but it also offers an array of technical and business courses.
Obviously, the instruction is geared...