Empowering the Future: Westlotto's Pioneering Journey in Building Data Skills

Digitalization has literally turned countless IT departments around the world upside down. And the end is still far from in sight.

The Challenge

To some, it may not seem so long ago that punch cards were still being used to store data and filled entire halls. Since then, the IT infrastructure of companies around the world has undergone numerous upgrades.

Westdeutsche Lotterie GmbH & Co. OHG (Westlotto for short) is continuously working on technical developments in order to guarantee the operation of state-of-the-art gaming products. In 2020, the next modernization step was therefore the introduction of a Cloud (hosted on internal servers). In addition to the technology change itself, a large part of the IT staff had to be trained to use the new system and the associated operational processes. All this at a time when collaborative working and learning was hampered by a global pandemic. Since the group was additionally made up of participants of different age groups, previous expertise, as well as different business units, an efficient, and innovative training solution had to be found.

To address these challenges and involve all participants equally, Westlotto collaborated with edyoucated on an innovative online training program. Central to the program was the transfer of knowledge about newly deployed technologies, such as Docker or Kubernetes. At the end of the training program, participating employees should be able to actively participate in internal decision-making processes.

The Approach

Initially, the content requirements for the training program were defined in close coordination with Westlotto. For these requirements, customized learning paths were provided on the edyoucated platform. Over a period of 20 weeks in total, the participants were then able to acquire new knowledge with the help of these online learning paths. The edyoucated platform supported each individual learner by personalizing the learning content based on prior knowledge as well as numerous learning incentives, such as team-internal leaderboards. Participants also had continuous access to mentors via the platform, who could be contacted in case of questions.

“The tailored learning content provided exactly the information needed for our work in the control center. The online platform made it possible to combine the learning with our shift work perfectly.”‍

Sabrina Descher, Head of Control Center & Participant

In order to deepen the newly learned content and apply it in practice, two hackathons were held in cooperation with the edyoucated mentors. The hackathons consisted of two virtual workshop days, during which the learners were able to experiment together, discuss and not only apply their newly learned knowledge in practice, but also question it.

The Hackathons

Due to Covid-19, the two hackathons were held via video conference. In an experimental environment, a Kubernetes cluster was provided where colleagues could try various things on their own. This way, the technological basics were playfully tested, which then provided the necessary context for future day-to-day work challenges and thus not only supported efficient decision-making but simplyfied the exchange of information between business units.

In addition to the practical application of the newly acquired knowledge, the existing processes and technologies were jointly reflected on and both organizational as well as technical implications of the upcoming Kubernetes implementation were evaluated. This created an interactive, collaborative training character despite the remote situation.