What is the Aker Academy?
The Aker Academy is an umbrella organisation for training and development activity in Aker Solutions globally. In an effort to align and professionalise our training and development activities, the Academy was formed in 2005. The Academy is not a “bricks and mortar” institution, but a virtual entity in which programmes and activities are built around Developing Core Competencies, Developing Leaders and Developing Teams.
Why do we have the Aker Academy?
The Academy is our tangible demonstration of our commitment to People and Teams – one of the core values in Aker Solutions – “ Delivering strong results is impossible without a highly capable workforce. We learn on the job, through challenging tasks, coaching and training.” The Academy is also one of the key mechanisms for demonstrating the One Aker Solutions approach – by showing that our training and development activities are driven at the highest level of the company and organised for the benefit of everyone with common standards and elements.
Who is involved?
An exciting aspect of the Aker Academy is that It is run by a Board comprising our CEO and the Executive Management team (the leaders of the 5 business areas) who are actively involved in determining the priorities for the Academy. Our programmes also have input from people within the business who really understand the training and development needs and help us to develop the right programmes at the right time providing content and teaching resources.
What does the Aker Academy offer?
At present the Academy has programmes which cover Developing Core Competencies such as Risk Management, HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) and PEM (Project Execution Model); Developing Leaders such as the Business Leadership Programme and the PM Learning Programmes and Developing Teams – the Team Alignment process. We also offer eLearning programmes on a variety of subjects.
Who is the Aker Academy for?
The programmes and activities are for all employees, from the engineer on a project to the president of a business unit. In particular, the eLearning programmes are designed to be used by all employees.
Where do the Academy classes and programmes take place?
Some programmes are “classroom” programmes and either take place locally at business units (such as the Becoming a Leader programme) or in business areas (such as the PM Learning Programmes) where people from various business units will travel to a central location. Other programmes such as the Business Leadership Programme are run globally in various different company locations. The eLearning programmes are run online and can be accessed from any computer.
Do I have to go through an Academy programme to advance my career?
The programmes are designed to help people make the right transitions when advancing in the company. Most often, candidates are identified for the programmes as they are showing signs of progressing within the company, and the programmes help them to understand what it takes to go further within the company. The leadership and Project Management programmes are built around a “Pipeline” model which describes the hierarchy in both the business unit and project, product and service parts of the company. As people progress from one level to another, transitions are made where skills, values and how time is used need to change. Each programme addresses those changes.
The programmes built around Core Competencies help people to align with the key values, philosophies and processes of Aker Solutions (such as the PEM) and as such help people to be successful and motivated in carrying out our core work.
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