MIGROS employs about 60,000 people in Switzerland. Much of the training is carried out on the job. Until recently this was done using a series of a hundred U-Matic video programmes called VideoMit prepared by the central learning department of the MIGROS co-operative in Zurich. The videos covered such topics as sales, customers, security, management,. The videos were initially planned for the training of newcomers to the company, but as staff has been relatively stable over the years, emphasis has shifted to on-going training.
Since mid '95 MIGROS have been successively replacing those videos that have the widest use by a series of CD-ROMs. All people required to teach using the CD-ROMs received special training. Users found it easier to use than the earlier U-Matic VCRs. Each supermarket has its own VideoMit "promoter" who is responsible for the equipment and can help out with pedagogical questions. Use of VideoMit varies from place to place. It can be used as a stand-alone learning method, but experience has shown, according to Andreas Kisch, that learning is more efficient when done in small groups. Gilles Stern of MIGROS Neuchâtel explained that an accompanying person was necessary, amongst other things, to point out local differences in ways of working with regard to the standard VideoMit presentation.
MIGROS also use specialised software to simulate management processes in business "games".
Andreas Kisch, MIGROS Genossenschaft Bund, Zurich,
Phone:
41.1.277.22.39
Gilles Stern, MIGROS Neuchâtel, Phone: 4&.38.35.81.11