.jpg)
The first course on Specification Management fundamentals is now available.
This post was originally published on LinkedIn. In my career as a manufacturing and software executive, one thing is clear: human capital is critical. Companies simply don’t win if they don’t have the right people. And in today’s environment, finding – and retaining – workers is harder than ever.
That’s why I’m excited to announce the Spec Academy, an online education platform that trains workers on Specification Management best practices.
As the founder and CEO of Specright, this is near and dear to my heart. Specification Management is catching fire, driven by market dynamics like sustainability regulations, supply chain disruptions, and workforce challenges. These market shifts have forced companies to adopt a spec-first approach. And because Specification Management is a new category of software, it’s evolving. There was no playbook for how to deploy a spec-first approach across your organization – until now. Spec Academy will enable our users and broader ecosystem partners to learn the foundations of Specification Management. In my mind, this is critical for three key outcomes: upskilling the current workforce, enabling the next generation of workers, and nurturing the Specification Management ecosystem.
Training & Upskilling the Current Workforce
Training and upskilling workers was a huge topic at our Specification Management Summit this year. For our long-term customers, many were asking us how they could take their knowledge of specification management to the next level. For example, by implementing new strategies or better understanding reports and dashboards. For current users, Spec Academy will provide not only training to supplement their hands-on learning, but also a certification to validate their experience and credentials. Many companies struggled to onboard new employees during the pandemic – and realized that implementing Specification Management can help digitize the tribal knowledge that typically leaves with each employee. Furthermore, new employees have greater visibility and faster onboarding simply by having access to the right data in an easy-to-use system. I believe we will continue to see the push for the democraziation of spec data in organizations as a result of sustainability initiatives and the need for cross-functional teams like quality, product development,and packaging to work faster, together.
Training the Next Generation Workforce
It’s not enough to educate the current workforce – we need to prepare students for the workforce they’re entering. That’s why I’m proud of our partnerships with academia to educate students on a spec-first approach from day one. Our work with Michigan State University, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UW Stout, Clemson, Rutgers, and others will enable students to gain access not only to emerging technologies, but the corresponding education. When students graduate with a certificate in Specification Management, they can quickly make an impact on companies that have already embroiled a spec-first approach. We’ve seen students who are graduating get jobs faster with companies because of their Specification Management knowledge, which has been so encouraging for industry and technology.
Building the Ecosystem
My vision for Specification Management is much bigger than Specright – it’s going to take an ecosystem of technology partners, academia, and services companies to fundamentally change how companies do business. Through Spec Academy our partners can get the same level of training we offer to employees. It will also provide companies with more expertise and a variety of solution providers to help them on their Specification Management journey. All of these partners will find value in learning the foundation of Specification Management, but also will interact with our Specification Data Management platform in new ways in the future when we release new courses.The power of integrations in your tech stack is taught in the initial course, but new courses will be created to show specific integrations, like with our partners TRAYAK and TOPS Software.
How to Get Started – and What’s Next
You can apply for the first course – Specification Management Foundation – here. And this is only the beginning. Our team is actively working on developing more courses, so if there’s something you want to see, let us know. You can email questions, feedback, or suggestions to specacademysupport@specright.com.I’m excited for more professionals to gain access to this knowledge, transform their data strategies, and use it to make amazing things.
