Executive honoured for making TELUS a learning organization

International award recognizes TELUS' commitment to employee learning

Vancouver, B.C. - Josh Blair, TELUS vice-president of Learning and Development, was named the Learning Leader of the Year for 2005 at the annual Illuminati Awards hosted by Thomson NETg, a leading provider of knowledge-on-demand solutions to global organizations.

The annual Illuminati awards recognize worldwide excellence in enterprise learning and are judged by an independent, industry-representative panel of experts. TELUS was the only Canadian recipient in 2005 and the only company to receive an Illuminati award in two consecutive years. Last year, TELUS received the Best Leadership Development Program award.

“Under Josh's leadership, we have put strategies, programs, technologies and tools in place that have enabled TELUS to become a true learning organization,” says Judy Shuttleworth, TELUS executive vice president of Human Resources. “Last year, the TELUS team completed 139,000 e-learning courses compared to 16,000 in 2001 -- an increase of 770 per cent in just three years. We complement online learning with face-to-face instruction, and in 2004 our team registered over 30,000 classroom-style course completions.”

"This is a highly competitive awards program," says Thomson NETg Chief Learning Officer Dr. James L'Allier, who chaired the selection committee. "We received an incredible number of qualified submissions from industry-leading companies -- many of which have very successful and innovative training programs. I believe Josh and the TELUS team have helped raise the bar for everyone in our industry by providing us with a living example of an organization that views learning as an unquestioned key component of its corporate strategy.”

TELUS offers innovative learning programs in leadership, ethics, business acumen, customer service, strategic sales, project management, financial management, technology support and on-the-job safety. One example is the transformation of TELUS' new hire training for team members in the Credit department. Traditionally, the training process to bring a new hire up to speed on TELUS' credit system consisted of 15 days of mostly classroom instruction. Now, the same training is delivered in a blended classroom/online approach in just six days and team members are working with customers as early as their second day.

Another example is TELUS' ethics training. Each year, every member of the TELUS team is invited to complete an online ethics course that highlights best practices and sets the corporate standard for ethical behaviour.

Blair and his team measure the impact of learning on performance at TELUS. Following a recent leadership course, 97 per cent of participants and their managers said the course had a positive impact on the participants' performance. Similarly, 90 per cent of TELUS team members now have career development plans that they have co-created and review regularly with their managers.

Thanks in part to Blair's efforts, TELUS has also been recognized by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) as the sixth-ranked firm, internationally, for using learning to drive enterprise performance.

Blair serves on the Board of Directors for Skills Canada BC and is a champion for corporate relationships with key learning partners. He is a professional engineer and graduated with distinction from the University of Victoria's Electrical Engineering program. He is also a graduate of the Executive Program at the Queen's University School of Business.

The Illumunati winners were announced at a gala awards banquet at Thomson NETg's annual user conference, NETglobal 2005, at Walt Disney World's Contemporary Resort in Florida.

About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, T.NV; NYSE: TU) is the largest telecommunications company in Western Canada and the second largest in the country, with $7.6 billion of annual revenue, 4.8 million network access lines and 3.9 million wireless customers. The company provides customers with a full range of telecommunications products and services including data, voice and wireless services across Canada, utilizing next generation Internet-based technologies.

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Shawn Hall
TELUS media and public relations
Tel: 604.697.8176
Fax: 604.331.8199
shawn.hall@telus.com