Telenor Xpress 4 - 2000

Higher learning

"At TCU, we are building our competence to match our ambition." Peer Jacob Svenkerud, project director, TCU

Formally established in 1999, Telenor Corporate University is designed to further develop and expand the horizons of Telenor's most valuable resource: its employees. According to Peer Jacob Svenkerud, project director at TCU, the University represents an important part of Telenor's increasingly global objectives. "Our role is to be a strategic instrument to implement, develop and enhance the competence of our employees," he says. "At TCU, we are building our competence to match our ambition."

A HISTORY OF EDUCATION
Telenor has long recognised the value of higher learning. In the past, Telenor has organised courses and seminars ranging from a series of IPO (Initial Public Offering) seminars offered to the company's top 140 leaders to an international management programme for Telenor managers working internationally. As Telenor sponsored an increasingly diverse collection of training programmes, the company saw the need for a more streamlined approach to corporate training. Today, TCU is used as a resource by all of Telenor's business units, from CSP Nextra to Telenor's R&D team.

KEY PARTNERSHIPS
According to Svenkerud, TCU will continue to form partnerships with leading international business schools in order to offer the best programme of its kind in Europe. Already, TCU collaborates with Norway's top business school BI to offer courses for future leaders. Soon, the University will launch a course on strategic issues in the new economy in co-operation with Babson, a leading U.S. business school. Soon, TCU will partner with other business schools to offer courses on international management, telecom market analysis, international business dynamics, operational focus and global strategies. With no real TCU campus, classes take place in different locations. However, by early 2001, students will be able to visit a virtual campus - a learning platform on the web.

This platform will offer remote users access to learning networks that will bring people from diverse backgrounds, businesses and skill-sets together to identify common goals and share competencies. "We see TCU as being the engine of innovative thinking at Telenor," Svenkerud says.

MASTERING COMMUNICATIONS
In October, Telenor launched its latest offering - a master's programme in telecommunications strategy. For the next nine months, 2 women and 11 men will participate in an intensive course schedule covering a wide range of top-ics before receiving their master's degrees. Formed in cooperation with the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology (NTNU), the master's programme is fully credited by the Norwegian Board of Education.

ADVANTAGE OR NECESSITY?
Whether talking about management seminars or master's degrees, training programmes or a virtual campus, Svenkerud sees higher education as an essential part of Telenor's global strategy. "I would challenge anyone to identify another business sector that is in greater need of advanced education than the telecommunications industry," says Svenkerud. "By offering advanced courses, we can not only build on the expertise of our employees, but attract skilled personnel eager to develop their skills in a fast-moving high-tech industry."



Text by: Alexander Wardwell