Baltimore -- Comcast Corp.'s cable unit plans to open
Comcast University -- an employee-training center designed to help the MSO deploy new
products and services -- Dec. 1.
Comcast Cable Communications president Stephen Burke made
the announcement at last week's East Coast Cable '99 here. He added that the MSO
is implementing a "Comcast Credo," designed to empower field employees to make
decisions in the best interest of the company and its customers.
Comcast Cable senior vice president Richard Petrino has
been appointed dean of Comcast University.
Comcast will devote one-half of a floor in its Center City
Philadelphia headquarters to Comcast University, where field trainees will be brought in
to learn how to teach their own employees back at the system level.
Jaye Gamble, regional vice president for Comcast's
metropolitan Washington, D.C., system, said Comcast University has generated a lot of
excitement in the field. System-level employees will have the opportunity to travel to
Philadelphia for training and a night or two on the town.
Gamble said the trips to Comcast University reinforce to
employees that training is a priority for the MSO, and that their employees are worth
spending the time and money to train.
Although the curriculum has yet to be fully developed,
Burke said it would encompass employee orientation and supervisory training, as well as
field training.
Gamble predicted that Comcast University would gather the
best training practices already in use in the field and build on them.
Burke said Comcast University would create video and
Internet training aides that field employees could access after they return to their
systems.
A former executive of The Walt Disney Co., Burke said
Comcast University was loosely modeled on his experience with the Disney Stores retail
chain, where he also had to train people in remote locations.
Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing
president Char Beales said field training is becoming more important as operators deploy
new digital services.
For MSOs that have yet to develop internal training infrastructures for the new digital
products and services, CTAM offers a series of "Master Courses" held in
different markets across the country.
