Sellicha and Achilles JQS (Joint Qualification System) are the sustainable procurement systems used by the energy industry and oil industry respectively.

“Our services provide business opportunities for purchasers and suppliers.  We contribute to reducing risk factors in the supply chain,” tells Sellicha’s Terje Aasen.

An Initiative from the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy
Achilles JQS was originally initiated by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy for Statoil, Hydro, BP, and Shell, in the early 90’s.  Using Achilles, the companies were better able to establish more cost-effective procurement schemes, working together rather than alone.

All the oil companies on the Norwegian shelf use Achilles JQS as a procurement database,” tells Aasen.  “If a company wants to bid to supply products or services to Statoil or Shell, for example, it must be registered as a qualified supplier in Achilles JQS.”

Norway's leading provider of e-learning, Mintra AS, has been involved in several international projects which aims for new methods and systems to facilitate efficient development of advanced training and documentation solutions based on updated product data.

The Norwegian Project Management Association (NFP) is the Norwegian national certification body, approved by IPMA, for evaluating training programmes based on IPMA’s competence requirements for certification.  Jorunn Wolstad is heading up the Norwegian certification programme on behalf of NFP, and has also been involved in developing the concept under the direction of IPMA.  IPMA’s certification system is a unique tool for describing the degree to which a given courses/programme covers the topics a candidate must master to qualify for certification, based on IPMA’s 4L certification system.  The certification process also evaluates the project manager’s experience and his/her ability to put experience into practice.  Certified programmes are listed on both NFP’s and IPMA’s web sites. 

“We are currently in the process of evaluating several programmes, but Holte Consulting is the first company in Norway to go through the entire process, based on IPMA’s international standard,” she says.

There’s no doubt that effective teamwork can represent significant value for the organisation and good returns on the bottom line. Organisations struggle to cope with rapid developments, increasing customer demands, growing technological challenges, and globalisation. There's no doubt that teams that bear the brunt of these challenges together a far more effective than groups of individuals.

This article describes what e-learning is, and how you can use it. We will also give you some tips as you consider adopting e-learning courses.

New technologies, like computers, the Internet, and mobile phones have not necessarily made learning easier, assert researchers at InterMedia. InterMedia, at the University of Oslo, conducts research on learning and technology.  This year, they're celebrating their 10th anniversary.

Two Norwegian high-technology companies took a chance on a collaboration to exploit each others' competence more effectively – with good results.  “Production costs were cut in half, better performance and shorter development time were achieved,” observes Fahad Awaleh in his doctoral thesis from BI Norwegian School of Management.

The article, “Learning from Learning Organisations”, written by researchers at SINTEF Technology and Society, looks at how private organisations work with various aspects of knowledge and learning, and how they facilitate internal development work.

When an organization introduces e-learning, the objective must be to offer this form of learning over the long term, says associate professor, Grete Netteland at Sogn and Fjordane University College, to the ezine, Comprehensive Learning and Competence - HLK.

Performance appraisal interviews (PAI) are a hot topic.  Various experts have made comments in the media that paint a somewhat negative picture of PAIs.  Not only do they have no positive effect on performance, but they can actually have the opposite effect.  Is there something fundamentally wrong with the concept?  Is it the implementation that is faulty?  Or is there something wrong the participants?  This article is a contribution to that debate.

In 2001, when Telenor decided to move more than 6000 employees in Oslo to one location, the company decided to use e-learning as one of several initiatives to contribute to internal competence development – and to generate a corporate culture of learning.  In her doctoral dissertation, “E-learning for Change in a Large Organization”, Associate Professor, Grete Netteland, of Sogn and Fjordane University College, is critical to Telenor’s approach, but also praises their efforts.

This is the first in a series of six articles, where Chul Aamodt shares his thoughts, informally yet seriously, about the development of the digital age and our transition to a new way of learning. Chul Aamodt is the Director of Marketing at Mintra.

Employees at The Norwegian Industrial Property Office (NIPO) are required to demonstrate that they are qualified to work in a knowledge company.
“I don’t know of any other Norwegian companies doing this,” says Ståle Windingstad, HR Consultant at NIPO.

As a company involved in global operations, Wilh. Wilhelmsen Group (WW) must manage increasingly complex sets of risks to maintain a sustainable business. In acknowledgement of this fact, and in order to strengthen security preparedness even further, Wilh. Wilhelmsen ASA resolved to pool security competence, experience and resources across the entire group.

Job satisfaction and motivation – two rather broad concepts, but nevertheless extremely significant for individual employees, companies, and society at large.  For individuals, job satisfaction and motivation are important with respect to experiencing mastery and contentment.  At the same time, high job satisfaction has been shown to reduce absences due to illness – employees who are happy with their jobs are sick less often than those who are discontented (Great Place to Work Institute).  Studies have also shown that productivity and profitability can be good measures for “total” employee job satisfaction (Michael West).

The most important knowledge in an organisation is tacit, and is shared when employees do things together.  That's why informal relationships are positive, asserts BI researcher, Cathrine Filstad.

April 29, 2008, Mintra arranged a successful breakfast seminar for customers and collaboration partners. The focus of the breakfast seminar was information security and ethics, and more than 50 guests participated actively in the debate along with the presenters and organisers.

E-learning can be made easily!  Even if you are a beginner, you can make an e-learning course, using Trainingportal Publisher, in only one day.

It is entirely possible to develop a culture where employees perform better than can be reasonably expected.  Two BI researchers have some good advice.

Competence comes from the Latin, “competentia”, and carries with it the idea of, “to know something”; “to be in a position to”.  These days, we use the word in various contexts.  The Federation of Norwegian Industries is concerned with competence because competence is exactly what puts industry “in a position to” conduct industrial activities.  Vice President of the Ulstein Group, Tore Ulstein, expresses it thus: “Attracting the best “heads” is probably our greatest challenge in the years to come…”