Lifelong learning "on the job": Colruyt Group starts with Postgraduate Digital Marketing for its own employees

As of January 2022, Colruyt Group is the first Belgian employer to offer an in-house Postgraduate Course in Digital Marketing in cooperation with VIVES Business School. The aim of this practice-oriented course, which consists of 108 teaching hours, is to give own (and future) employees the opportunity to further specialise in digital marketing communication. The offer fits in with Colruyt Group's belief that learning is part of a career and that it allows people to grow, both at a personal level and in their job. With the recently founded Marketing Academy, the Belgian retail group wants to continue to focus on such tailor-made training courses for its own marketers, because "training is the new recruitment".

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Postgraduate Digital Marketing: a Belgian first

The marketing profession is constantly changing. Colruyt Group considers it important that its own and future employees constantly evolve and keep up with the developments of digital marketing. Liesbeth Sabbe, Colruyt Group HR Director: "We strongly believe in the growth potential of our people. Whoever starts his career today will probably change jobs a number of times. Partly deliberately as a career switch, but partly also because jobs will look completely different. This evolution is accelerated by things like Artificial Intelligence, 5G, (big) data and even corona. As an organisation, we want to respond to these changes".

In consultation with VIVES Business School, it was therefore decided to set up a postgraduate course at Colruyt Group itself. It will be a training course adapted to Colruyt Group's own models, with coaching moments and knowledge that the own digital specialists can immediately apply "on the job". At the end of the 108 teaching hours, the participants will also receive an official diploma. This is a Belgian first, of which the first course will start in January 2022 and run until after the summer. The Postgraduate Digital Marketing is a strongly practice-oriented programme in which the secrets of digital marketing (communication) are revealed. Experienced teachers and experts illustrate the topics with best practices from the field.

The programme, which includes 10 hours of on-the-job coaching, zooms in on the smart development of (digital) marketing plans and strategies, making and interpreting digital analyses, storytelling and much more. Katrien Cattoor, lecturer in market research, web design and digital marketing and programme coordinator of the postgraduate digital marketing programme at VIVES/Brugge Business School, adds: "At VIVES/Brugge Business School, we start from the needs of the labour market and the professional field to organise training for professionals to develop their careers. We offer an ideal mix of theory and practice which can be directly applied in the workplace. To this end, we develop the programmes with experts from the business world and select lecturers from the professional field. The fact that we set up a postgraduate Digital Marketing programme tailored to Colruyt Group's needs fits in perfectly with our mission. We strongly believe in the dynamics of such cooperation".

Tailor-made marketing training courses thanks to the Colruyt Group Marketing Academy

This unique Postgraduate Course in Digital Marketing is part of the offer of the recently founded Colruyt Group Marketing Academy. This Academy offers a wide range of professional training courses selected on the basis of the needs of its own marketers.

A Marketing Academy Platform was created for this purpose. This must become a place where everything comes together, with tutorials, training sessions and tips that fit in with the specific interests of the marketers. Liesbeth Sabbe: "That ranges from best practices of colleagues to tips on the latest trends: both internal and external knowledge are addressed. We want an offer that adapts to their specific job, projects and interests, compiled on the basis of click behaviour and previous learning moments. Artificial Intelligence plays an important role in this as the underlying technology to present the most relevant content and training to interested colleagues. You can see it as a Netflix profile - but then for learning purposes".

Lifelong learning as part of the job: training is the new recruitment

Colruyt Group has been fully committed to lifelong learning for many years, according to the principle "the company grows as the people grow". The Colruyt Group Academy offers a wide range of professional and personal training courses, and last financial year (2019-20) the group invested no less than EUR 38,779,300 in training and education for its employees, equal to 3.04% of the total wage mass.  

Colruyt Group sees great potential in a new hybrid form of learning and working, of which this postgraduate course can already be a first starting point. "We remain convinced that company culture and career opportunities are - and will continue to be - important reasons for choosing a company. Of course, we hope that the Marketing Academy will also attract new talent. Because not everyone gets the chance to grow in their job everywhere. For Colruyt Group, learning is part of your job and not just something that comes on top. And we want that for everyone: whether you are at the beginning of your career or in the middle of it", says Liesbeth Sabbe.

 


 

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