Renault has opened the Renault Academy, its new training centre, on its Plessis-Robinson site outside Paris.
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The new centre develops technical, sales and behaviour-oriented training programmes for Renault’s entire international sales network and was created to support the automaker’s objective of becoming one of the top three in terms of service quality and to meet the service requirements of the so-called Renault Excellence Plan.
Its goal is to reorganise the automaker’s training system and reinforce professionalism amongst employees.
Renault has invested over €25 million in this new training centre, €1.2 million of which was used to equip the workshops. The 11,500 m2 building includes 5,000 m2 devoted to the 125 workshop stations, 38 classrooms, 2000 m2 divided into four support function areas and 800 m2 of logistics space.
The training centre has a body shop area and another for mechanics. The body shop section contains a double station prep deck, a spray booth and a paint lab. The mechanics area was designed with a special room to ensure vehicle confidentiality.
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By GlobalDataThe Renault Academy was created to harmonise training policy for the automaker worldwide by offering a single course catalogue for all sales and service network functions.
The centre has three main missions: to coordinate network training, guarantee its quality and effectiveness, and optimise investment.
Network training activity is divided into three sections: the first designs and develops the training modules, the second is in charge of communicating the programmes to local instructors, while the third deploys the training standards to all subsidiaries.
For the sales functions, the academy prepares training programs for sales advisors, sales managers, delivery advisors and commercial assistants. For after-sales functions, it handles the training of service advisors (shop receptionists), and shop supervisors. It also develops body shop and mechanical workshop training for mechanics, electrical mechanics, cotechs (technical coordinators) and cartechs (body shop technicians).
Behavioural training is one of the new programmes that the academy has set up. This type of training is given to employees whose jobs bring them into contact with the customer in both the sales and after-sales functions, including sales, service and delivery advisors, sales managers and shop supervisors.
Its goal is to ensure that in each of these functions, employee behaviour is geared to customer satisfaction. The training programme has two stages. The first is a presentation of the 20 service essentials for sales and after-sales. This part of the programme can be implemented in the sales network itself through e-learning at a computer workstation. It was deployed in 26 countries in May 2005, and will now be offered to the entire Renault network worldwide.
The second, complementary stage of the programme consists of practical courses held in training centres. Each subsidiary is responsible for training its network in its own country.
Deployment of this second part of the training programme has just begun this month.
Renault claims to have created a breakthrough in training programme implementation by developing new computer tools for e-learning.
For the mechanics program, the ‘F2k’ tool covers the 27 proficiency modules a workshop must master in order to function correctly. To optimise training time, e-learning tools enable all trainees to follow the theoretical part of the programme onsite. For example, a ‘virtual workshop’ is available for mechanics to test themselves in real-life situations before taking the practical part of the programme in a training centre. In 2005, some 10,722 days of training with this tool were given to 5,285 employees in 30 countries.
To cover the other training areas (body shop, sales and behaviour training), Renault uses the so called Learning Management System (LMS). This is used to handle administrative tasks (registration for on-line training, e-mail alerts and so on), manage content and distribute the e-learning modules. It is geared to all the network functions. Like F2k, it can be used for distance learning and to tailor programmes to the needs of individual employees via pre-testing.
Alongside ongoing training, the academy creates new programmes and develops new functions corresponding to various levels of expertise. In 2005, two new functions were created, the electrical mechanic and the cartech.
In the general area of ‘mechanics’, for example, programmes are offered for mechanics, electrical mechanics and cotechs, and in the body shop, for the body repairman and the cartech.
The electrical mechanic is in charge of performing routine diagnoses so that the cotech can concentrate on more complex or infrequent repairs. The electrical mechanic receives the same training as technicians/subdealers. However, the cotech, or technical coordinator, remains the only person in direct contact with the carmaker and the technical assistance platforms.
The 2005 selectivity criteria for the new European regulation stipulate that there must be two electrical mechanics for every seven technicians within the dealer network.
In 2005, 600 electrical mechanics were trained in France. By the end of 2006, the dealer network will hire another 1,400 electrical mechanics for its workshops.
The cartech, or body shop technician, is the dealership’s car body expert. Like the cotech, he is in contact with the automaker and helps to train his team. His expertise contributes to improving body shop service quality.
