New Delhi: New Horizons Computer Learning Centers (NASDAQ: NEWH — News), the world''s largest independent IT training company, today announced the results of a learning analytics process where nearly 1.5 million evaluations have been collected from New Horizons customers worldwide. The results indicate that New Horizons training is a significant catalyst in optimising efficiency and effectiveness back on the job. Within eight weeks of completing training, participants showed 38 percent of an average performance improvement, which was directly attributable and isolated to New Horizons training, as opposed to other factors that can influence performance gains.

The independent research audit was conducted by KnowledgeAdvisors, a learning analytics company, and was based on data that was collected two months after New Horizons students received training and had gone back to their jobs. The data was collected through KnowledgeAdvisors'' learning analytics tool, Metrics that Matter. New Horizons, an early adopter of the learning analytics strategy, has been collecting and analysing data of this type since February 2000.

"In 2001 we introduced our Integrated Learning solution framework which consists of customer-focused computer training choices with a wide variety of tools and resources that reinforce the learning experience," said Martin Bean, New Horizons chief operating officer, Anaheim California. "Our goal is to ensure our customers are not only satisfied with our training offerings, but that our services are aligning with their business strategies back on the job. The learning analytics process provides us with a measurement that proves a positive return on investment for our customers."

In addition to performance gains, the learning evaluation also concluded:

• 70 per cent of participants were able to apply New Horizons training within 8 weeks;
• 97 per cent of participants utilise or plan to utilise the knowledge and skills gained through New Horizons training on their job;
• 60 per cent increase in skill or knowledge was noted by participants upon leaving the training;
• New Horizons training yields a 4:1 benefit-to-cost ratio, relative to the predicted increase in performance.

Through the Metrics that Matter tool, KnowledgeAdvisors is able to predict job impact and can reinforce the prediction with follow-up data collected when participants are back on the job. The process is used by over 100 of New Horizons training centers around the world to meticulously track a scorecard of metrics including: customer satisfaction, learning effectiveness, job impact, business impact, and ROI.