Zhu Hongmei is a sales agent working for a Sino-foreign joint insurance company on the mainland. She's just finished a customer data management course at the insurer's corporate university.

"Since I aim to become an insurance and financial advisor, I will choose university courses that are in line with my needs." As an agent of the insurance company, Zhu Hongmei was charged less than a hundred yuan, or around ten US dollars, for the two-day course.

"Of course it's worthwhile. It helps me work more professionally and efficiently when serving my clients."

The situation is similar at many other enterprises, such as white-goods maker Haier, computer manufacturer Lenovo and telecom solution provider Huawei on the mainland.

But these corporate universities offer free courses to their employees.

Lee Liu is HR Director of Talent at Motorola University, Asia Pacific.

"A corporate university is a long-term project. It’s really a trend now. If an enterprise wants to be evergreen, it needs a corporate university."

Lee Liu made the comment at the First Global Summit for Corporate Universities recently held in Beijing.

"A corporate university helps employees develop core competitiveness, including leadership and soft skills such as presentation skills."

But doesn't this sound like what you hear in the classroom of a traditional business school? Are the courses offered by a corporate university easily replaced by tailor-designed business schools for the company?

"Yes."

David Vance is founder and former President of Caterpillar University.

"Especially when they are working in partnership."

But the two are distinct from each other.

"Because a corporate university is going to focus on the business related learning, a corporate university is going to assume that the employees who are hired come away from the university with all the basic skills whether it’s business skills, engineering skills. But then when they get to your company or your organization, they have to learn company specific or industry specific knowledge. That’s where a corporate university comes in."

Then what makes the corporate university a necessity?

Wang Jiang is a senior training manager with Bank of China's corporate university, Institute of International Finance. After some eight years of development, the institute now has a 6-acre campus with 30 staff.

"We've been cooperating with the country's leading business schools including CEIBS, or the China Europe International Business School, and the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University. The academic scholars have in-depth study in specialized courses and fields, where they can help us a lot. But when it comes to some specific issues that we meet in business operation, such as how to adjust our corporate culture in line with our business development, I think they can only be effectively solved in a corporate university rather than elsewhere."

Insurance sales agent Zhu Hongmei talks about her experience as a corporate university student.

"I think many courses provided by traditional universities can hardly compare with what a corporate university offers as they are rarely relative to my work."

And Zhu Yan with the company specific programs of CEIBS has this to say.

"Corporate universities have advantages in providing basic training courses closely related to the industries or the businesses their companies engage in. Senior managers of the enterprise can offer very good guidance for junior staff. But when it comes to a specific issue or phenomenon, those senior managers can hardly compete with scholars who’ve been doing related research for decades."

It seems the corporate university and the traditional business school are not interchangeable, especially when a corporate university has the following feature.

Lee Liu with Motorola University.

"If a corporate university works well, it should be able to help your clients and your suppliers by providing related training so that the whole value chain can be complete."
But that could also generate problems if the corporate university focuses on external training.

"I think it's a challenge for a corporate university to become a training company, because that's not their core function."

And David Vance gives his opinion.

"I think they are emphasizing correctly. They need to be strategic, not to try to do everything, to be aligned with the corporation and make a difference. I think those are the basics. And that will distinguish you from a traditional training function."

Moreover, if an enterprise focuses too much on the scale and the hardware of its corporate university, problems could also emerge.

Dr. Qiao Xuejun is with the Graduate School of Education, Peking University.

"I find that the corporate universities of many Chinese enterprises tend to build gorgeous campuses and facilities."

If this is the case, an enterprise could get itself trapped in an expensive possession that is a financial burden to maintain.

Dr. Yan Xiaozhen, Director of Motorola University China.

"I think the original intention of many Chinese enterprises that set up corporate universities was to get in line with international practice and keep up with the multinationals. But I think the more critical issue for them to consider is whether their software system, including the learning and development process, is well in place."

For Biz China, I'm Dandan.

Host: Thank you, DD.

So what kinds of enterprises need a corporate university? And are there any problems in establishing corporate universities? For the answers to these and other questions, I talked to  David Vance.

Host: That was David Vance, founder and former president of Caterpillar University on the development of a corporate university.