Dive Brief:

• Accenture, the global professional services company, invested $841 million on the training and professional development of its people in fiscal 2015 – delivering 15 million hours of training, at an average of more than 40 hours per employee, according to a company press release.
• 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 specialized skills" needed to serve Accenture’s clients and communities.
• Accenture Connected Learning, a blend of classroom-based training and a digital learning environment, served as the centerpiece that that links the company’s employees to professional content and world-class experts, both internal and external.

Dive Insight:

Since its introduction in early 2015, Accenture Connected Learning enables employees – data scientists, visual designers, information architects, mortgage processors or any of the diverse skilled professionals within the company – to "enrich their professional capabilities, develop critical skills and enhance their own career opportunities", according to the company announcement.

This level of investment reflects current trends in the learning space, where programs must be increasingly flexible and continuous, available at any time via an app and often collaborative.