Alstom Grid wins trophy for innovation in professional training

Alstom Grid Human Resources has been honoured for its Sharing Experience professional training programme. The forward-looking project is designed to ensure the communication of essential knowledge and skills across all levels of Alstom Grid.

The competition was sponsored by three professional organisations: the Fédération de la Formation Professionnelle (FFP), the Groupement des Acteurs et Responsables de Formation (GARF) and the Association Nationale des Directeurs des Ressources Humaines (ANDRH), with an awards ceremony held in May during La Nuit de la Formation Professionnelle 2011, at the historic Casino de Paris.

Competing in the category Best training strategy by a corporation, administration or municipality, Alstom Grid received the Judges Favourite award.

The programme begins by identifying rare knowledge holders throughout the company. Secondly, it simultaneously addresses different training needs: internal training sessions for groups, tutoring for young professionals and mentoring in the case of knowledge transfer from one colleague to another.

To support the initiative, Alstom Grid procured a grant from the European Social Fund (ESF), as a professional deployment programme with established learning goals, evaluations and a certification upon completion of the course.

From engineers, to financial and operational experts, to highly specialised factory technicians, Alstom Grids Sharing Experience programme created a virtual map to show who the experts are, where they are located and what their role is. A 70-hour training platform (working with DALETT consultants) was developed to give the experts the best possible tools and support to transmit their knowledge.

The pilot session ran from 31 May to 31 December 2010, with certificates handed out to 10 interns in January 2011. A second training programme begins September 2011.

Dominique Szulka, HR Development for France at Alstom Grid, explains: A key role of Human Resource Development is to identify the business needs of the company and then propose ways of supporting these needs. Sharing Experience addresses the need of Alstom Grid to plan ahead for possible gaps in knowledge. To assure the transfer of skills and expertise from an aging work force to the next generation, before the issue become critical. For the experts, the experience was both fulfilling, and educational. It is a win-win situation for everyone involved.

About Alstom
Alstom is a global leader in the world of power generation, power transmission and rail infrastructure and sets the benchmark for innovative and environmentally friendly technologies. Alstom builds the fastest train and the highest capacity automated metro in the world. It provides turnkey integrated power plant solutions and associated services for a wide variety of energy sources, including hydro, nuclear, gas, coal and wind, and it offers a wide range of solutions for power transmission, with a focus on smart grids. The Group employs 93,500 people in 100 countries and had sales of 20.9 billion in 2010/11.

Alstom Grid has over 100 years of expertise in electrical grids. Whether for utilities or electro-intensive industries or facilitating the trading of energy, Alstom Grid brings power to their customers projects. Alstom Grid ranks among the top 3 in electrical transmission sector with a sales turnover of approximately 4 billion in 2011. It has 20,000 employees and over 90 manufacturing and engineering sites worldwide. At the heart of the development of Smart Grid, Alstom Grid offers products, services and integrated energy management solutions across the full energy value chainfrom power generation, through transmission and distribution grids and to the large end user.

Press Contacts

Emmanuelle Helleux (Alstom Grid) Tel : +33 1 47 01 70 87
emmanuelle.helleux@alstom.com