GDF SUEZ University recognized for its personal development and training programs

The award, made by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), distinguishes groups that offer their employees best practices and high performance programs for personal development, training, and apprenticeship.
The CLIP label represents acknowledgement by a recognized, prestigious institution of the high standards and quality learning programs offered and dispensed by the Group’s in-house university for training and individual personal and group development. Following evaluation by professionals, only 16 companies, including GDF SUEZ, have been recognized at the European level.
According to Gordon Shenton, Deputy Director of EFMD, “The peer review team was impressed by GDF SUEZ University’s level of quality in terms of impact within the Group and by the overall level of its programs and activities. The University clearly makes a significant, strategic contribution to the Group’s integration. Its role as a laboratory for ideas is exemplary.”
GDF SUEZ University was created in 2000 at the initiative of Gerard Mestrallet, the Group’s Chairman and CEO. It plays a key role for GDF SUEZ executives and managers in terms of the Group’s development, training, and construction. Its missions align with the Group’s strategic priorities. GDF SUEZ University is a genuine tool for integration, cohesion, and know-how sharing and also models itself as a laboratory for ideas and strategic planning within and for the benefit of the Group.
Since the program’s creation, over 30,000 promising performers and managers from all Group backgrounds have received training from the company university. Close to 6,000 participants are received each year in the some 200 sessions organized in 15 countries. CLIP accreditation offers the occasion to highlight the particularity of GDF SUEZ University, which made the conscious decision not to outsource its programs. In fact, in addition to the regular participation of over 200 Group experts and executives, the University’s 22 staff members work in close collaboration with some 40 outside partners in the design and implementation of “in house” programs.