Simi Firm Requires On-Site Class Studies

If you hated going to school, don’t apply for a job at Cardkey Systems Inc., a Simi Valley firm that produces magnetic-coded security systems, mainly for military and industrial installations.

Since 1992, all 200 of Cardkey’s employees have been required to attend on-site classes aimed at improving their skills in problem solving, customer service, production and management, among other things.

Depending on an employee’s position, the courses total from 146 to 270 hours of class time. There’s homework too.

Now the state Employment Training Panel has awarded Cardkey $364,000 to help defray the program’s costs, which include hiring an educational consultant and paying workers for their time in class.

“It’s money well spent,” Cardkey President Joe Vona says of the state grant. “These courses help make our company more effective and competitive in a worldwide market. And they’ll make our workers more employable in case they ever return to the job market.”

Cardkey is a unit of Metra, a Helsinki-based conglomerate with sales of $2 billion annually.