Accenture invests more than $840m in staff development

With a focus on digital, the company said it has reinvented its approach to learning, enabling its 373,000 people to unleash ideas, drive innovation and develop the highly specialised skills needed to serve Accenture’s clients and communities.

 “As a talent-led organisation, we are always inventing new ways for our people to learn and grow professionally in their careers,” said Pierre Nanterme, Accenture chairman and CEO. “Digital is key to learning at Accenture, and we continue to invest in the latest digital technologies to deliver highly relevant training to our people –quickly and at the point of need – to ensure that we are bringing our clients the end-to-end capabilities and outcomes that only Accenture can deliver.”

The company said the centerpiece of this investment was Accenture Connected Learning, a blend of classroom-based training and a digital learning environment that linked the company’s employees to professional content and world-class experts from inside and outside Accenture.

 Accenture said since its introduction at the start of fiscal 2015, Accenture Connected Learning had enabled the company to develop highly specialised skills at scale and to respond to quickly changing business requirements faster than ever before. 

At the same time, the company said Accenture Connected Learn enabled its employees – be they data scientists, visual designers, information architects, mortgage processors or any of the diverse 

 skilled professionals within the company – to enrich their professional capabilities, develop the critical skills needed to stay market-relevant and enhance their own career opportunities.

 “Accenture Connected Learning makes learning continuous, flexible and increasingly democratised,” said Ellyn Shook, Accenture chief leadership and human resources officer. “Our people learn best by connecting, collaborating and practicing for the scenarios they will encounter in their work with our clients. 

 “From basic skills to industry-specific content, learning is available to all our people anywhere, anytime – and, in many cases, no selection or approval is involved. Simply tap the app and start learning.” 

 The company said it has more than 50 connected classrooms enabled its people from multiple locations – often spanning thousands of kilometres – to participate together in interactive and collaborative classroom sessions taught by its senior leaders and world-class subject-matter experts. Accenture plans to double the number of its virtual classrooms in fiscal 2016 to more than 100.

It said more than 24,000 online courses and 900 learning boards – online forums curated by subject-matter experts through which Accenture people can find and share the best information and ideas. These online courses and learning boards provide anywhere and anytime learning opportunities, giving employees development opportunities outside of the traditional classroom environment, the company said. 

Accenture said it had five regional learning centres which offered Accenture employees a more traditional classroom learning environment and helped develop talent locally. The company has centres in Bangalore, India; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; London, England; Madrid, Spain; and St Charles, Illinois (outside Chicago) in the United States.