What did this involve ?

Executives at Alcatel-Lucent University, the training body for this group boasting 77,000 employees worldwide, wanted 25% of all their training schemes to be provided through distance learning. 'In France we decided to work towards this goal by introducing e-learning as part of our management training programme, explains Nunzio Mabellini, Assistant Director for Training in France, and we chose CrossKnowledge to put it into practice.'

The introduction of distance learning in Alcatel-Lucent's professional development programme is expected to yield a number of benefits: improved teaching efficiency during courses, enhanced accessibility and attractiveness of training programmes, optimised training time, reduced non-teaching costs (travel expenses, logistical constraints) and, last but not least, reduced training costs. 'In France, Alcatel-Lucent offers management and professional development courses to more than 2000 employees every year.' As part of this new setup, several training programmes have been restructured since the beginning of 2007 to offer 'blended' training courses (combining distance learning with classroom tuition) such as 'How to be a real manager', 'How to be a manager-coach', 'Project management', 'Efficient time management' etc., and standalone distance learning modules such as “Becoming a manager” and 'Preparing and conducting job interviews'.
 

So to what extent can blended training courses be seen as novel and beneficial? For project executive Laurence Larock 'the most successful training courses are long-term and alternate between individual and group training, thinking and practice. As the name suggests, a blended training course is a carefully balanced combination of stand-alone modules and group training sessions. Distance learning enables learners to absorb content at their own speed, and gives them time to think about it carefully. They then have a better recall of what they have learnt, and can prepare more cogently for the seminar where they will exchange and apply their knowledge and understanding.'

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