Institute Takes Classes to Company for On-the-Job Retraining

Executives at Medical Analysis Systems, a biotech firm in Camarillo, have gone back to school for a lesson in the “Philosophy of Quality.”

Before they are done with the course, the students--including company founder and Chief Executive Ivan Modrovich--will be taught how to increase yields and attain higher production quality.

Other employees of the company also are putting in study time, receiving computer training and other instruction. The lessons are being provided on company grounds by the Ventura Institute of Technology.

Most of the funding for the 24-month program is being handled by the Employment Training Panel, a state agency that has awarded the Camarillo company $320,000 to retrain its workers.

The panel contracts with employers and educational agencies to train or retrain workers, enabling the employers to be competitive and productive over the long term.

For Medical Analysis Systems, the lessons are intended to help the 25-year-old company incorporate a new management style aimed at keeping the business profitable in the medical diagnostic market.

“About 1 1/2 years ago, Mr. Modrovich did a reorganization of the company because he felt it would be more effective if we divided the tasks and the company into teams,” said Jon Gilchrist, manager of international marketing and business development.

“He feels teams are the way we can remain competitive with a lot of larger competitors in the world market,” Gilchrist said. “We have to come out with products faster, better and using less people.”

The classes attended by company executives, Gilchrist said, should make it easier for them to create their own curriculum to retrain employees on the technical side of the operation--another plan they hope will lead them to a greater share of the market.

A desire for growth is common to the clients of the Ventura Institute of Technology.

The 8-year-old company uses 26 instructors from a variety of backgrounds--some hired as part-time employees, others on a contract basis--to teach 50 business classes ranging from customer service to engineering.

“I saw in 1989 that the state of California was beginning to get into trouble on a worldwide basis,” said John Greiman, executive director of the institute. “I saw that the way to raise our economic level was to make the firms more competitive in the global marketplace.”

Since it was established, the institute has trained employees from about 70 companies. Current clients include Raypak, a Westlake Village manufacturer of pool and spa heaters and commercial boilers, and the Geiser Tool Co. of Ventura.

Raypak workers are taking a 21-month training program, which in April 1996 received about $400,000 from the employment training panel. The Geiser Tool Co. is funding its own program.