Located about fifty kilometers from Seoul, Incheon free economic zone spans some 20,000 hectares. It was here in 2013 that Veolia founded the ITTC, the new training center for the Asia region. This 3,300-square-meter Campus is entirely dedicated to training the industrial departments in the field of water. The Water business line holds significant weight for the Group, which has been present in South Korea since 2000: after winning a first water management contract for a Hyundai Petrochemicals site, Veolia consolidated its presence on the three Korean sites owned by Hyundai Electronics, now SK Hynix, which specializes in semiconductors and is a major consumer of ultra-pure water.
Serving the industrial strategy
Before the ITTC opened, Veolia counted three training centers in Asia, all located in China (Shanghai, Zhuhai and Changzhou). These Campuses specialize in training in water-related activities for the municipal sector. The ITTC was created to supplement this structure and support the Group’s development strategy on industrial markets. The center groups together pilot industrial units with cutting-edge laboratories, while the training modules are designed in line with industrial clients’ concerns. This has given rise to a water quality analysis laboratory that is one of a kind in Asia and treats some 60,000 samples each year on behalf of Veolia and clients.
Disrupt: a breath of creativity
15 talented young people from Mexico, the UK, the United States, France and Italy, working in the Communication, Human Resources, Information Systems & Telecommunications, Safety, and Technique & Performance divisions, met in Birmingham at the end of 2017 to take part in a new training program. Known as Disrupt, it calls on participants to come up with digital solutions to meet a number of the Group’s concerns.
This first session devoted to the theme of waste and wastewater gave the young talent the opportunity to expand their network, improve their professional knowledge and become familiar with innovation methodologies such as design thinking and lean start-up. The outcomes are just as positive for the Group, which gains the benefit of new ideas. A second Disrupt session was held in April 2018 in Paris on the theme of accidentology in the water sector. A third is already planned for mid-November 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Training and skills transfer
The ITTC also serves to assess the proficiency level of Veolia staff in order to identify their training needs better and allow them to acquire the necessary industrial technical skills. The aim is sharing in every sense of the word: know-how, infrastructure, equipment management, etc. “At the ITTC, Veolia trains Veolia,” states Malongna Chein, Vice-President, Learning & Innovation at Veolia in China. “This sets the tone for our training culture, in which everyone in the company is responsible for other people’s development and therefore knowledge transfer throughout the Asia region.”
To date, the ITTC offers a comprehensive range of programs – 19 in total in 2017, including Cooling water system management, Optimizing the working environment, Energy performance and contract management in the building sector, An introduction to waste treatment, along with Veolia Empowe’Her/WIL and the organization of visits from external delegations (the energy company Woongjin, Hynix, Paris-Dauphine University, etc.).
A sign of its openness to the outside world, the center also provides training programs linked to knowledge transfer for the Group’s industrial partners and third-party contractors.
Continuous assessment of talent
The ITTC relies on the sophistication of its training programs and state-of-the-art equipped facilities to drive home to each Veolia staff member the need to prioritize competency-based training (CBT). Through the continuous assessment of talent, it provides a way of identifying training deficits, all the better to remedy them. The center has made this its top priority and communicates this approach widely across the Group.
A One Veolia tool
Currently entirely devoted to water activities, the ITTC will shortly be taking advantage of its modular nature to host pilot units specializing in the Group’s two other major areas of expertise – energy and waste management. Personnel from these two sectors are already coming to discover the Campus’ organization. “In the long term, it’s about working for the whole Group,” highlights Malongna Chein. “With the ITTC, we benefit from an extremely flexible platform of excellence, which offers a common core linked to Veolia’s activities worldwide and is able to adapt to local market realities.”
KEY FIGURES FOR THE ITTC
1,400 people trained per year
60,000 samples processed each year in the central laboratory, for both the Group’s internal and external clients.
KEY FIGURES
72 % of Veolia’s 168,800 staff members took part in training in 2017. The aim is to reach 75% by 2020.
545 trainers and contributors
13 Veolia Campuses established in 9 countries
