CLEVELAND - The folks at Tooling University are betting that interest in online training will only grow this year. With the economy making business more challenging, distributors and man- ufacturers should arm their employees with knowledge, they reason. And with budgets still tight, why not bring that training to employees' desktops and save the travel dollars and lost hours on the road or shop.floor? Launched nearly two years ago, Tooling University (www.toolingu.com) is an e-learning that delivers training metalworking and factoring employees via the Internet. Courses range from basics, such as math, to more advanced subjects like CNC part programming. Classes take a few hours to complete and students take them at their own pace. The cours- es combine text, illustrations, audio and video, and a final exam is given after the coursework is complete. Tooling U has over 55 core classes and is adding classes regularly. Director of sales and marketing Greg Jones expects to have 120 classes available by the end of 2003. By the end of last year, 150 companies had purchased licenses to.the Tooling U site and were training an average of six employees per year. A partnership with the Industrial Distri- bution Assn. added basic product training to the mix. Introductory courses cover abrasives, safety supplies, saw blades and hand tools, to name a few. The idea is to educate employees on the funda- mentals of each product group. Partnering with associ- ations like I.D.A. is one way Tooling U is building its inventory of classes and its business. Tooling also works with community colleges and other institutions to bring training to an even audience. Customized training for manufacturers is available, as well, allowing them to deliver existing or new training pro- grams to employees, distributors or end users via the Web. It doesn't end there. Jones says Tooling U will expand its focus beyond metalworking - first into abrasives, then metrology and welding, in that order. In addition, Tooling Us entire curriculum will soon be available in Spanish.