Svevia Academy


In 2008 Svevia set up a new organisational unit in Human Resources named "Svevia Academy". The Academy was set up to centralise, coordinate, streamline, and improve process performance in the administration of education and learning at the company. Svevia Academy delivers a service to all of Svevia's employees and managers and is managed by three education coordinators, one chief learning officer, and two trainers.

The Academy works closely with Svevia's operational functions to develop in-depth training courses and currently offers over 150 of them. In 2010 Svevia had 533 instructor-led training offers that resulted in 828 days of education for 4493 (non-unique) learners. This presented a significant operation, management, and cost challenge for Svevia.

One of Svevia's biggest educational efforts in 2011 was the "Vårt arbetssätt" - "Our Way of Work", consisting of five days of instructor-led training and a short introductory eLearning course that covered the new software used. A total of 691 employees participated in the training, which would not have been possible or effective without Saba and Comenius.

Certification Management


Svevia also needed to manage the certifications of its countrywide workforce to ensure they were compliant to work on the projects Svevia had won. Employees were required to attach their CVs to project tenders to provide credible evidence of their certification and experience.

Previously, Svevia used a legacy system that presented the required data in an inflexible, static format that was often out of date. If CVs are not attached to tenders or are badly presented, they can be rejected. One state-owned customer commented that Svevia's CVs were now "best in class".

Comenius - a Trusted Partner


Svevia initially approached Comenius, a trusted Saba partner since 2001, to provide a solution to this challenge. After a thorough analysis of the situation, Comenius recommended and successfully implemented Saba Learning, a comprehensive learning-management system delivered in the cloud by Comenius.

Saba Learning provides an industry-leading social and formal learning environment that enables organisations to drive top-line growth, increase customer retention, cultivate their employee know-how, and reduce costs and risks of non-compliance. Built to support the people processes of the most forward-thinking organisations, the easy-to-use system accelerates knowledge transfer across ecosystems of employees, customers, partners, and suppliers.


Using innovative technologies and mobile delivery, Saba Learning generates user engagement by making knowledge more accessible. Saba's solution is hosted by Comenius, who provide a complete solution for managing their software licenses, installation, as well as business and application consulting and training.

David Svedin, HRIS and HR process development at Svevia, said, "One of our challenges is finding ways to reach our employees who don't have regular access to a computer - these are mostly our construction workers, who are based offsite. In this instance, we cannot rely on self-service and e-mail. Many of the education coordinators manage the registrations and use postal mail and SMS to inform the employees of the various courses that they have registered for. However, now with Saba, we have seen employee interest in 'self-service' increase, with more and more employees managing their own training requirements."

The Future


Looking to the future, Svevia plan to update their introductory eLearning courses for new Svevia employees and managers, and these will be part of the new starter curriculum. They also plan to develop eLearning in other areas, for example for environment and safety courses. Svedin went on to say, "We will continue to develop and review our certifications process, and the latest area we are focussing on is keeping track of medical examinations, which are required by law, as well as the various types of electrical safety certificates."

"We are also deploying a competency model in Saba Learning. The functionality of Saba Learning enables us to attach development discussions as part of employee development plans. Comenius have customised the solution to meet our requirements."