Since its inception in 1998, Celtel has invested over $800 million in its network infrastructure in Africa and has increased its workforce to more than 3,000 professionals. Since the company has grown both organically and through acquisition, each operation in Africa had its own training and development department. Celtel was faced with the challenge of training a highly dispersed workforce located up to 6,000 km from its headquarters in the Netherlands.

CEO Marten Pieters: "We had invested so much in our network infrastructure. Now we needed to invest more in our people". The company selected a local Dutch consultancy firm Berg & Van der Meer to set up the Celtel Academy as a virtual training institution to support employee development within Celtel. A range of training programmes was developed and a Learning Management System (LMS) was acquired to drive the Celtel Academy initiative.

Celtel will now offer a range of training programmes in English and French to its employees. The courses for Celtel's Senior and Middle Management have been developed in collaboration with the London Business School and Wits Business School in South Africa. "Celtel Academy is part of our strategy to operate as one company. This solution is helping us develop a single company culture across the Group, ensuring equal access to training and education opportunities for all our employees", said Pieters.