Utilities Address Generational Divide With New Web Course From Apogee Interactive

ATLANTA, June 22, 2004 - With Baby Boomers retiring and Millennials coming onboard, diversity training offers a way to bridge the generational divide now growing within mature energy companies. Apogee Interactive announced today it offers an award-winning, online diversity course to help its utility clients achieve their diversity and inclusivity goals.

"Generational divide and other diversity issues are cropping up as companies work to blend four generations in the workplace into effective teams," said Randy Edwards, director of eLearning for Apogee Interactive Inc. "Older workers now often report to younger workers, and Gen Y employees often approach work differently than Traditionalists," he said.

Appropriately titled "Dialogue on Diversity," the 2-hour electronic course is one of the first online diversity courses to earn certification from the American Society of Training and Development. The course also won a Copper Axiem award in the multimedia industry for excellence in electronic media.

Demographic shifts within companies are becoming more pronounced as large numbers of Baby Boomers hired in the 70s take retirement and a new wave of Gen Xers and Gen Y or Millennials join the ranks. "These dynamics can become magnified in an industry that's been around 100 years, like the electric utility industry," said Sam Lynch, founding partner of Global Lead Consulting, the national management consulting firm that originally developed Dialogue on Diversity.

"Utilities traditionally have had a workforce largely populated with white males. Yet in the first decade of this century, only 15 percent of all new entrants into the workplace will be white males," Lynch added.

The Dialogue on Diversity course utilizes a diverse group of virtual participants and a simulated facilitator to candidly illustrate the need to appreciate differences and mobilize similarities. The course delivers a bold, thought-provoking experience through video scenarios and dialogue among the virtual focus group members. Interactive exercises and illustrated modules help reinforce this compelling education on the massive demographic shifts underway in today's world.

The Internet-based format cuts training time by 75 percent, compressing the content of an 8-hour classroom experience into four 25-minute online modules. Apogee provides the course with a customized introduction specific to utilities through its energy industry training portal, Study-Center.com. The portal currently features more than two dozen energy-related courses, including Situational Spanish for the Energy Industry.

Apogee Interactive (www.apogee.net) is a leading provider of eLearning solutions to the energy industry, having pioneered online learning in the early 90s in CD format. The company now operates the largest Web-based portal of specialized energy courses (www.study-center.com) and provides custom course development. Apogee is the exclusive distributor of Dialogue on Diversity to the utility industry for Global Lead Consulting (www.globallead.com).

Contact: Apogee Interactive Inc.: