Raytheon adds learning center

"We've come a long way, baby!" Jenkins said moments before she cut the ribbon on the company's new Employee Learning Center.

The two-story, 10,000-square-foot building, also known as Building M10, is tucked behind another Raytheon building at 3360 E. Hemisphere Loop, near South Palo Verde and East Valencia roads.

The center features 12 classrooms, a kitchen and two large conference rooms. It also features digital video displays and other high-tech equipment, including an interactive touch-screen display that allows a roomful of users to collaborate on a document.

"This will have lasting effect — it's good for the company, it's good for its employees," Rick Nelson, Missile Systems' vice president of operations, told a throng of Raytheon workers, adding that the facilities are already booked for the next four months.

Jenkins, Missile Systems vice president of human resources since 2005, said the center will be used for a variety of training and meeting purposes, including leadership training and collaboration among staffers.

Most Raytheon employees take part in some kind of continuing education or leadership training every year, she said.

The new building is the first dedicated learning facility for Missile Systems, Southern Arizona's biggest employer, with more than 11,500 employees at several local sites.

"We've gone to multiple facilities throughout the community, so this makes it easier from an access perspective, and just the idea of having their own world-class center with all the state-of-the-art equipment," Jenkins said in an interview.

Jenkins would not say what the building cost but called the project a "significant investment."

"We feel the return on that investment is going to be realized in our business performance — because learning certainly impacts our business performance — in our employee growth, in our employee retention, and (by) our employees feeling that this company cares enough about each of them to invest in this kind of facility," she said.