• The headmaster will see you now…
• Telenor CEO Sigve Brekke implements company-wide learning
• All employees to spend 40 hours annually on upskilling
• Telenor Campus relaunched with online courses

New year, new resolutions. For the CEO of Telenor Group, that means ensuring his employees get up to speed with digitalisation and actually become what other telcos still aspire to – a digital service provider. Sigve Brekke has challenged the company’s 30,000 employees in 12 countries to carry out 40 hours of training and education in 2018 (which adds up to 1.2 million hours in total) to transform the workforce for a digital future.

“Digitalisation is fundamentally changing our societies,” said Brekke. “Embracing this change can help turn it into an opportunity; we need to work in new ways, dare to think differently about career development and we need to stimulate life-long learning. I want all of us in Telenor to continuously transform our skills.”

Telenor Group’s management team has identified key areas that need to be strengthened if it is to continue delivering value to its 176 million customers globally. The five areas are:

• digital marketing
• digital channels
• applied analytics
• design
• product development

At the end of last year, Telenor’s digital learning portal, the Telenor Campus, was relaunched with curated courses from online learning providers such as LinkedIn’s Lynda and Coursera. At least 20 of the 40 mandated hours of training will be held within Telenor Campus and the rest via on-the-job training or external courses. In addition, Telenor has created a five-week online course for all senior managers in partnership with INSEAD that focuses on effective strategy execution, one-year training programmes for experts within critical capabilities, and various leadership programmes focusing on growth.

“As our and other industries transform, the future of work is that you may not have one career, but several – and we as an employer must cater to that,” added Brekke. “1.2 million hours is a significant investment across our workforce, and I truly believe that the return on this bet will put us at the forefront of the digital race.”