Gütersloh, 04/03/2020

Great Response To In-House Training Initiative

Two weeks ago, CEO Thomas Rabe and HR Director Immanuel Hermreck announced a worldwide in-house training initiative, to help employees devote themselves to their personal further training and education during the crisis. Of the 350 courses initially made available, 210 have already been booked by employees.

China, Italy, Germany, Spain, the U.S. ... no, we’re not talking about the spread of coronavirus around the globe. Rather, these are five of the 16 countries from which Bertelsmann employees have applied for a Udacity Nanodegree course at Bertelsmann University. Just two weeks ago, CEO Thomas Rabe and CHRO Immanuel Hermreck launched a global in-house education initiative to enable employees to use any capacities temporarily freed up by the crisis to pursue their personal further development. 210 of the 350 courses initially made available have already been booked by employees. The first employees started on April 1, and the next are about to.

Besides the above-mentioned countries, participants come from Australia, Brazil, Belgium, France, Britain, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Hungary. All eight Bertelsmann divisions are represented. The Nanodegree is a recognized degree from Udacity, an online university whose key investors include the Bertelsmann Education Group. 92 students have signed up for the “Product Manager” course, and 118 for “Digital Marketing.” “I’m really pleased that so many colleagues signed up for the Nanodegree courses so quickly,” says CHRO Immanuel Hermreck, assessing the great response to the education initiative. “It’s also a great sign that all divisions and the biggest Bertelsmann countries are all represented. It shows that our employees want to learn, and they want to prepare themselves and Bertelsmann for the time after the coronavirus crisis.”

Chief Learning Officer Steven Moran underscores how smoothly Bertelsmann University set up and activated the short-term initiative in its usual close collaboration with its partner Udacity, adding: “Together with Udacity, we can ensure that the first 150 participants can begin as early as this week. During April, at least 60 other colleagues will each start one of the two Udacity courses – and interested parties still have until the end of the month to register. We will respond accordingly if there is greater demand.”

The “Product Manager” program deals with defining product strategies, honing presentation skills, and developing convincing prototypes and implementation schedules. Those who pursue a Nanodegree in “Digital Marketing” will learn how to create marketing content and use social media to reinforce messages. But also how to make sure that content is prominently placed and easily found in online searches, how display, video and email campaigns work, and much more. More information about the Nanodegrees can be found on the Bertelsmann University website.