Blended learning successful in onboarding process for KPN customer engineers

Dirksen Opleidingen is training 150-200 customer service engineers for KPN this year. The first ten classes have started and more will follow. We ask Marieke Turkenburg, responsible for this onboarding process, how it is going.

Marieke Turkenburg is Business Partner Learning & Development at KPN and, in addition to leadership and talent development, deals with complex change issues. She says: “Change issues always start with the question of whether learning can be used as a means to achieve our goal. This also applies to the improvement process at the mechanic organization. The need for well-trained personnel is great at KPN. The onboarding and proper training of in-house mechanics has now even been designated as extra important due to the corona measures. Many of our employees work from home, but an exception has been made for a large part of the classroom meetings at Dirksen. Of course, this is with stricter measures and in compliance with the RIVM rules.”

                 

Learning by doing
The new KPN technicians are taught the necessary knowledge, skills and behaviours at a rapid pace to be deployed independently as soon as possible. The onboarding programme they go through is structured according to the 70-20-10 concept. “You learn 70% by doing it yourself in practice, you learn 20% from a colleague-buddy with whom you ride along and you learn the remaining 10% in the classroom at Dirksen. In eight weeks, the technicians are prepared for their task of perfectly connecting KPN internet, telephony and television to customers and to be able to perform work in our telecom infrastructure.”

All technicians directly under the green flag of KPN
KPN had outsourced part of the mechanic work to installation partners. In recent months, they have implemented a transition to a different model in which they use a Service & Support team of 1200 own employees and temporary staff. As a result, the coordinating and management tasks now lie with KPN. “The mechanics together form the face of KPN. All mechanics receive the same training and development facilities. They also wear the green company clothing, drive in green caddies and have modern equipment at their disposal to help customers quickly and in a friendly manner. The experiences of our customers are more uniform when employees with direct customer contact are as close to KPN as possible. And mechanics learn better from each other.”

E-learning in a nutshell through corona
Until recently, the training at Dirksen consisted largely of classroom sessions and one module was offered via e-learning. “We worked hard together to include more e-learning modules in the existing curriculum,” says Marieke enthusiastically. “Virtual learning is not new, but it has accelerated due to corona and has become more normal. Everyone now sees the benefits of it and understands that it is necessary.”

Blended learning: classroom and online
Blended learning plays a major role in KPN's vision. "We teach knowledge and skills through a smart combination of online training and classroom meetings. The more you can prepare for a practical lesson in advance, the more you will learn. You can prepare your exercises in advance via our digital learning environment, so that you can make progress more quickly in the classroom meeting and go over the material with your teacher that you are struggling with. And if you have a question along the way? Then you can look it up in our portal."

Pleasant cooperation
KPN has been a customer of Dirksen for years, many teachers also have a KPN background. “Dirksen is a party with which we have been doing business for years with satisfaction. Your strength is your flexibility and knowledge of the telecom field. If we get into trouble with our planning, you think along and come up with a solution. That works very well.” 

Learning the future
Marieke also sees room to personalize and digitize the onboarding program more in the future. “Online and offline learning are connected to each other and even better. The buddies play an important role in transferring knowledge, but their first priority is to help the customer and not to train new colleagues. The question that concerns me is, who provides the best practical guidance? Colleagues, managers, external trainers or professional coaches? And how do you make the entire program and the different parties seamlessly connect to each other?”

Microlearning in the flow of work
There is a good chance that the fitters will return to Dirksen after their training. “You have also been providing recertification for all our infrastructure personnel for years. In order to maintain quality, all kinds of cabling certificates are refreshed every few years. In practice, we encourage microlearning: continuing to develop yourself daily by using small learning moments. The skills of the future include 'learning in the flow of work' as a fixed part of your day.”

Customised advice: always a suitable solution
Do you also have a specific training question that requires a suitable solution? Within the market segments Industrial automation, Electrical engineering, Datacom & networks, Telecom and ICT we can in principle meet every training question from the business community. Your wish is central. We tailor the study form to your employees and business situation and if you wish we develop completely new material. This way you get an optimal solution that responds exactly to your situation and wishes. 

More information about customization >