Accenture yesterday announced the launch of Accenture LearnVantage to provide its clients with comprehensive technology learning and training services that will help them reskill and upskill their people in technology, data and AI to reinvent their organizations and achieve greater business value. The new service is designed to help leaders across industries and governments quickly identify gaps in relevant skills being created by advances in technologies and then provide the industry-specific training needed to fill those gaps at speed and scale. This includes delivering highly personalized learning experiences for a wide range of technical and business users, from specialized AI and data science, cloud and cyber security training for IT professionals to Gen AI training for board and C-suite members and business leaders.
The company will invest $1 billion in Accenture LearnVantage over three years and has agreed to acquire Udacity to build on and scale for clients Accenture’s deep experience in learning and training and meet rising demand for technology skills, including generative AI. According to Accenture research, business leaders say their No. 1 challenge is their inability to upskill their workforces, with 51% of organizations starting to see negative impacts from worsening IT skills shortages. In addition, 94% of workers say they want to learn new skills to work with generative AI, but only 5% of organizations provide gen AI training at scale.
Accenture has helped many enterprises upskill their workforces for business reinvention, including biopharmaceutical company Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada.
Accenture has invested to create an AI-native learning platform that seamlessly integrates with an organization’s existing learning platforms. With the help of an AI recommendation engine, the platform curates the best learning content from Accenture and third-party providers to offer a personalized learning journey that aligns with priority areas of learning.
Accenture LearnVantage will offer tailored technology learning programs; specialized, predesigned technology academies; ecosystem learning certification services; and managed services for a client’s own learning capabilities. LearnVantage also will offer nanodegrees, certified online programs designed to provide users with hands-on experience and industry-relevant skills in specialized fields.
The acquisition of Udacity will bring to Accenture the company’s capabilities in integrating proprietary content, expert services and scalable learning technology and aligns with Accenture’s long-standing approach to learning through formal training, learning by doing and coaching by experts. Udacity provides localized course offerings in multiple languages, including English, Arabic, Korean and Spanish. Udacity’s more than 230 professionals will join the Accenture LearnVantage business. Accenture LearnVantage’s full set of services will be available later this year following the closing of the acquisition.
Julie Sweet, chair and CEO, Accenture
We are passionate about helping our clients become ‘talent creators’—with people at the center of their reinvention using technology, data and AI—and a critical part of that is investing in industry-specific training and technology skills development. We are scaling Accenture’s deep capabilities as a world-class learning organization to help our clients meet their business growth objectives and enable their people to develop the relevant skills they need to make the most of the opportunities that technological change is bringing.
Dave Williams, executive vice president, chief information and digital officer, Merck
Digital, data, analytics and AI are touching every part of what we do as a company as technology plays a pivotal role in discovering, developing, manufacturing, and providing access for patients to medicines and vaccines. To continue delivering on our promise to use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world, we are developing and investing in our people. We have launched a groundbreaking generative AI training program for our employees in partnership with Accenture to create world-class digital leaders.
Kishore Durg, global lead of Accenture LearnVantage
The rapid rise of generative AI has grown our clients’ need for training and upskilling their people in cloud, data and AI as they build their digital core, which is essential for reinvention. Accenture LearnVantage will help our clients not only advance their business goals but also help their people build the skills they will need for the next waves of technology change.
