Dive Brief:

• If AT&T wants to survive in today's new cloud-driven landscape, many of its 280,000 employees need retraining so they can improve and adopt skills such as coding so they can make quicker decisions based on the "fire hose of data" coming into the company, according to the New York Times.
• To try and reach that goal, AT&T two years ago launched an ambitious corporate training and education program, Vision 2020, that offers to foot the bill for some classes to help employees modernize their skills, the Times reports.
• The only caveat is AT&T employees must take the classes on their own time and, for certain classes, pay their own way. To CEO Randall Stephenson, the choice should be easy, the Times reports. Either get on board and learn these new, required skills or career opportunities within the company will be extremely limited.

Dive Insight:

Stephenson, whose older brother works with the company repairing traditional copper phone lines, told the Times that employees must "retool" continuously. He added that those not spending five to 10 hours a week in online learning will "obsolete themselves" with the technology.

The longform article features several AT&T employees, some who are trying to get with the program and some who are not. It's a fascinating look at a large employer in transition. As the article points out, employers reinventing themselves to compete with more nimble competitors is not new, but the success stories are far and few between. AT&T's goal is to be one of the survivors.