Developing a training strategy and plan for AES Sonel, Cameroon's CAPEX Programme
- OverviewRead more
Cameroon's previously state-owned energy producer and distributor, Sonel, was partially privatised in 2004. Investment amounting to more than $500 million was secured from American firm AES, creating a new organisation called AES Sonel (AES). The funding had been allocated to a five year CAPEX programme.
The objective of AES's programme was to upgrade key production and transmission assets in the country. Halfway through the programme, less than half of anticipated progress had been achieved, with forecasts predicting benefits would be delivered late or not at all. Moorhouse was invited to improve the situation initiating a major staff training assessment and intervention. First we defined fundamental principles for project and programme management in this delivery environment and identified the skills that every member of staff should have. Through workshops with all 55 staff, we applied a framework to map their skills and created individual training and development plans. Leaving the CAPEX Programme with clear sight – individually and collectively – of the competency gaps required and a detailed plan on how to achieve it.
- Our client's challengeRead more
Funding had been allocated to a five year CAPEX programme, the objective was to upgrade key production and transmission assets (e.g. dams; power lines) and expand population coverage.
Halfway through the CAPEX programme's duration, less than half of the anticipated progress had been achieved. The net impact of this was that many anticipated programme benefits were either going to be delivered late or not at all. One major reason for much of this underspend was thought to be inconsistent and insufficient project and programme management competency amongst otherwise technically skilled programme and project delivery managers.
To address this issue, the AES Sonel CAPEX Programme management team determined a training strategy and resultant training plan, was necessary to define the additional skills required by its staff, and create the framework for the delivery of these skills.
- Our responseRead more
We took a two stage approach in response to this challenge.
Initially, we defined principles upon which any programme and project management training approach must be based. This referred to generic approaches to learning within a corporate environment, and outlined the balance between different types of capability development (e.g. classroom training; on-the-job training; mentoring; coaching etc.).
We identified the skills and skill levels that each individual in the CAPEX Programme should have in order to fulfil their function effectively. This completed the development of the Training Strategy.
We applied this framework to the staff, in order to understand where they lay with regards to the ideal skill set.
All 55 staff on the CAPEX Programme were interviewed for an hour (in situ, in French), supported by a consistent set of questions that allowed us to assess each person against the developed framework. We then created a set of individual training plans.
- The value to our clientRead more
Previously, AES Sonel's CAPEX Programme had no formal, consistent approach to programme and project management training.
Staff morale on the CAPEX Programme was low, due to awareness of programme under performance. In addition, there was a belief that the situation could not be improved, since no investment was being made in the development of the people required to deliver.
With these challenges in mind, the engagement delivered two elements of fundamental value to the client.
- A clear understanding of where the key project and programme management competency gaps lay in the organisation, and a plan to fill these.
- A stakeholder engagement exercise with programme and project delivery managers to give them confidence that senior management understood their concerns and were willing to invest to improve the situation.
Click here to download the PDF.
