Why Dealer Education Matters to Growers | by Kelly Schultze

From the equipment they purchase to time spent in the field, growers put many resources into their operations. A grower’s investment involves much more than money. Growers have every right to expect trustworthy, skilled and knowledgeable salespeople and service technicians at their local Valley_® dealership.

At Valley University, we strive to make sure this expectation is not only met but exceeded. By providing our dealerships with the most accurate and up-to-date information on our products, we ensure that they are ready to answer any questions a grower may have. It is our goal to give all dealership sales employees the knowledge and skills needed to determine the best irrigation solution for each grower’s specific needs.

The commitment of excellence Valley makes to its customers goes beyond the point of sale, just like our commitment to support all dealership roles. In addition to product information, we provide courses to train service technicians. When service personnel are more knowledgeable about and experienced with Valley equipment, they are more efficient and accurate at the job site.

To train our dealerships’ service techs, we use interactions and simulations within our online courses. Service technicians can practice product installations and troubleshooting before ever leaving their dealership. This increases their comfort with the machines, and gives our growers peace of mind that they have the best trained service techs working on their equipment.

The Valley U team is dedicated to making online learning accessible and beneficial to our dealerships. We already know we have the best mechanized irrigation products available, so it’s our job to focus on making sure we have the best dealerships in the world to support our growers.

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Kelly Schultze E-Learning Instructional Designer Kelly joined Valley Irrigation in early 2014 as an E-Learning Instructional Designer. When she isn’t at work, she is typically creating replica costumes and props from films, comics, and television shows. Kelly also enjoys learning languages and is conversational in French and Korean. She loves to travel, and has lived abroad while studying in South Africa and South Korea.

Valley U Bringing Passion and Education to Valley Dealers | by Kelly Schultze

Continuous improvement is one of the Valmont_® cornerstone values, and it is something we at Valley_® University strive for every day. Valley University is Valley Irrigation’s go-to resource for dealership training and development.

We are constantly looking for ways to improve our courses and make them more engaging. Each team member has a passion for learning and teaching new things, and it is our goal to bring that passion to each person who uses our Valley University site. 

These days it seems like every week brings a new gadget or feature that affects our daily lives, regardless of what industry we work in or where we live. In an environment that is constantly changing, it is important to stay up-to-date not only for our personal development, but also our professional development.

Technology is making it easier than ever to improve business through more efficient operation. From our end, being able to share information with every Valley dealership employee at the same time is incredible.

We have some really great developments coming soon that will benefit our dealerships. One of these developments is the creation of more service courses. From programming panels to proper wiring techniques, we will be improving our support for the service technicians at each dealership.

Recently we’ve been adding gamification to our courses. We’ve created quiz games such as Don’t Break the Pivot, Pivot Racing and Bird’s Eye View. We have more coming soon, as well. 

If you’ve taken our courses and enjoyed the games, or if you have ideas for courses or games you’d like to see, we would love to hear about it! You can contact us at valleyuniversity@valmont.com or (402) 359-6500.

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Kelly Schultze E-Learning Instructional Designer Kelly joined Valley Irrigation in early 2014 as an E-Learning Instructional Designer. When she isn’t at work, she is typically creating replica costumes and props from films, comics, and television shows. Kelly also enjoys learning languages and is conversational in French and Korean. She loves to travel, and has lived abroad while studying in South Africa and South Korea.

Valley University Wins National Recognition | by Kelly Schultze

In August, we announced that the Valley_® University team was named as a finalist in the Chief Learning Officer^® 2014 Learning in Practice awards. We are proud to announce that at the recent Chief Learning Officer Symposium, the Valley University team received an award for Global Learning. Other winners in the in our category included Western Union and the U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Institute.

We are excited to receive industry recognition for our efforts to expand and improve the training we provide our stakeholders. And, although we are pleased, we are in no way satisfied. Going forward we will continue to create courses that will serve both our international and domestic dealership networks, as well as expand our internal employee development opportunities.

Here are some reflections from our team:

“I think back to when I was first hired and how we started with literally nothing, and I can’t help but be proud of where we’re at today. Our team has put in a lot of hard work to get to this point, and it has been rewarding to see how actively our dealers are utilizing the system. I’m extremely grateful that Chief Learning Officer magazine has recognized our efforts, and I know that the Valley U team is committed to meeting and exceeding expectations moving forward!” - Billy Grenfell, Sr. E-Learning Instructional Designer

“Building Valley University from the ground up, including the architecture, set up, and launch of a global Learning Management System has been such an exciting and rewarding experience in itself. To be able to reach and educate people all over the world with valuable content in their own language is an amazing thing and something we take a lot of pride in. It is awesome to look back two years ago and see how far we have come, and this award from Chief Learning Officer magazine reaffirms we are headed in the right direction.” – Jenna Olmer, Sr. E-Learning Instructional Designer

“The award and recognition are great for Valley Irrigation and Valmont_® Industries. I am proud to be part of an organization that has received industry-leading reviews, and we will continue to work hard so that this won’t be the last award we are recognized for. Our team is full of driven and devoted individuals that are continually pushing the limits of our learning system. Congratulations to everyone in the Valley Irrigation and Valmont family for painstakingly contributing the content and reviewing the courses with us. Let’s keep the momentum going forward.” – Dan Gage, E-Learning Instructional Designer

“Receiving this award has been exciting and encouraging. We at Valmont are definitely on the right path to enhancing the company’s training around the world, and it’s a very rewarding feeling to be involved in something that helps to develop people’s expertise and careers while improving our business results and shareholder value. I’m excited to continue working with the skilled and knowledgeable people in our organization to creatively, through cutting-edge technology and media-rich content, produce training courses and materials that will further assist our internal and external learners.” – Kelly Schultze, E-Learning Instructional Designer

“This award is a huge honor and further validation that our work has a positive effect on the lives and career development of our dealerships and our Valley Irrigation and Valmont team members.” – Tyler Bertsch, Training and Development Specialist

“This independent, industry-leading validation that we are moving the needle with global training and development is a good indicator we are doing the right things here at Valley Irrigation and Valmont Industries. Our leadership’s commitment to excellence, innovation, human talent development, and continuous improvement is further proven by the Valmont Welcome and Learning Center, a state-of-the-art $14.5 million facility serving Valmont learning and innovation. We at Valley University are pleased to serve in the continuous improvement process to which we all aspire.” – Patrick Angel, Director, Global Learning

The Valley Univeristy team, from left, Kelly Schultze, Tyler Bertsch, Billy Grenfell, Jenna Olmer, Patrick Angel, Dan Gage and recent intern Paige Jones.

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Kelly Schultze E-Learning Instructional Designer Kelly joined Valley Irrigation in early 2014 as an E-Learning Instructional Designer. When she isn’t at work, she is typically creating replica costumes and props from films, comics, and television shows. Kelly also enjoys learning languages and is conversational in French and Korean. She loves to travel, and has lived abroad while studying in South Africa and South Korea.