Companies That Create Their Own Universities
Campuses, centers, institutes, or academies, corporate universities are spaces for training, knowledge sharing, and skills development.
They also fulfill a mission in terms of corporate culture.
Campuses, centers, academies or institutes, whatever their name, training centers are increasingly developing within companies. These strategic locations share the same concept: in a knowledge economy, intellectual capital is a determining competitive element, a creator of value, which must be managed as a real production factor. It should be added that if universities are multiplying, it is to counteract the human resources deficit that prevails in the country.
Already, in the 1950s, companies like General Motors or Motorola had developed this concept of a corporate university to supplement the training of their employees. In France, corporate universities have continued to develop in recent years. More than half of the CAC 40 companies have thus equipped themselves with an internal university. In this group, we find France Telecom, the PPR group, Total, Accor, Cap Gemini and Ernst & Young.
Morocco is not lagging behind. BMCE Bank, Accor, Lydec and many others are following the trend. The latest, the Ona corporate university, has opted for a virtual university that operates as a network, thanks to its partnerships with major national and international schools.
Training cycles are already operational. This includes the "Executive management" cycle, carried out with the Instituto de Empresa, one of the most prestigious schools in Madrid. In addition, the group plans to open a business and distribution institute, designed to strengthen distribution professions. The center aims to train the 5,000 employees of the two brands Marjane and Acima.
Managers or ordinary employees, everyone has access
The Accor Morocco academy also aims to follow in the footsteps of its elder, the Evry Academy, by offering its services to hotel establishments that are not part of the group. For its part, Veolia Environnement Maroc has a campus that covers four hectares and offers both technical training specific to the group's professions and transversal training in management, finance, commerce and others.
It is no coincidence that the concept is attracting such enthusiasm. The corporate university actually fulfills several functions. In addition to improving employee skills, capitalizing and sharing knowledge, it allows in particular the development of a common culture, the creation of social links within the company and the federation of heterogeneous entities, particularly in the case of mergers or upheaval in the organization of companies. The latter use it as a tool to make the employee understand his contribution to the group. They also try to retain talent while offering managers quality training. For Abla Benabdellah, CEO of Ona University, "it is therefore intended to play a preponderant role in the group's human resources, as a vector of adhesion, seduction and talent retention." Unlike traditional training centers, these are strategic places, true spaces of education and applied economics.
Who is this type of training for? It should be emphasized that the corporate university, initially reserved for an elite of managers, now addresses all personnel. At Ona, for example, the "junior potential" cycle, carried out with Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, allows new recruits, in particular, to quickly absorb the company culture and sharpen their skills to become the group's future managers. Another experience, that of the Total group which, through its Campus university, offers training at all levels: from vocational training open to managers to complementary training, which even offers managing directors of service stations, who are not employees of the group, "aggression and malicious damage" training, including training specifically for secretaries and mechanics.
Another example is the Microsoft Academy, which no longer limits itself to drawing from internal resources to train its managers. It opens the doors of its academy to graduates of business schools around the world. The few privileged candidates benefit from tailor-made training. They receive theoretical training with close-up observation internships. More precisely, the courses include 10 weeks of training in various European countries and on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, USA, and 42 weeks of practice in the subsidiary of the country of origin. The intern also benefits from on-the-job coaching, giving him the opportunity to join one of the company's divisions, the main objective of this program. Moreover, successful candidates sign a permanent contract at the start of the internship.
It is noted that the training provided is of very good quality. "We must be demanding about training to keep pace with international standards. Moreover, some technical modules are often updated to meet the company's requirements," stresses Salim Ennaji, HRD of Veolia Environnement Maroc.
Many companies favor the transmission of knowledge between peers and training by internal facilitators. But universities also call on non-academic profiles such as experts, consultants, coaches... "We call on both internal consultants, especially for technical training because our managers are perfectly aware of the issues involved, and external consultants for management training," adds Mr. Ennaji. Open to the outside world, some of them have even developed programs in partnership with business schools, consulting firms or universities and sometimes award diplomas.
Finally, the advantages for managers are not negligible. "The university offers managers the opportunity to expand their knowledge, better understand the company's culture and broaden their horizons. It also allows them to create new contacts within the group and thus develop their professional network," specifies the HRD of Veolia Environnement Maroc. For managers, it is also a way to disseminate a company vision, to capitalize on knowledge and above all to create a monitoring unit on the internal or external environment.
Posted on February 19, 2008
