KPMG’s Learning Academy to help organisations upskill for future

The Learning Academy brings together the breadth and depth of KPMG’s subject matter expertise with its learning design and technology skills and capabilities.

KPMG India recently launched the Learning Academy with an endeavour to deliver a range of off-the-shelf digital, blended, and classroom courses on a wide range of subjects, delivered through its secure and accessible online platform. The Learning Academy brings together the breadth and depth of KPMG’s subject matter expertise with its learning design and technology skills and capabilities.

The Academy will work with organisations across five areas—learning strategy and transformation, learning programme management, lanaged learning services: learning design and development, learning branding and communication; and lastly, learning infrastructure.

Established on April 1, 2016, the academy was formally launched in the market on February 20, 2017 in New Delhi NCR and plans for a launch in Mumbai on March 7. Through the initiative, the company is looking to deliver 90+ learning programmes across five broad clusters—finance, leadership, management and people; forensic, risk, governance and compliance; performance, process, service and quality; and digital and technology.

Talking of how the academy helps improve organisational performance, Nishchae Suri, partner & head – KPMG Academy, says, “Capability must be built in the context of strategy, expansion aspirations, brand and vision, predicted environmental fluctuations and mission-critical CEO agenda items. Through learning solutions, the Academy empowers organisations by leveraging KPMG’s experience in varied solutions and industries.”

In addition, the learning programmes will also help organisations prepare well for the future, as Suri says, “Through the Academy, we are able to bring our expertise to clients in areas, such as robotics and cognitive technologies, power forecasting, governance advisory, startups, cyber security and analytics, to name a few.”

Taking this initiative further, KPMG plans to make people and organisations fit for the future, transform learning design to realise intended outcomes and also leverage best-in-class learning technology. Keeping that in mind, the initiative is also in line with the technological advancements and the changing needs of the modern learner.

Modern day learning needs

There is now vast research on how best we respond to learning, which is transforming the way we design programmes. Learning design is also a function of recently changed assumptions—our affinity towards experiential learning, our enhanced response to affective / emotional content, the increasing connect with digital, technological innovations, the significant role of collaboration, the need for global teaming and the mandate for personalised programmes.

Psychological neuroscience can now be used to underpin learning design to achieve best learning alternate formats, such as gamification and storytelling, to deliver exceptional learning programmes. The KPMG Learning Academy then, acts as a design centre of excellence, persevering to promote the cause of best in class learning offerings,” says Suri.

Technological Advancements
People learn virtually through apps from peers and mentors, while working on the job. “Hence, when we start to design learning solutions, we do not limit ourselves to the classroom. To take into account reduced attention spans in a fast-paced business environment with multiple disruptions, we have built spaced-learning designs in digital solutions,” Suri opines.

With the belief that millennial employees will learn through short, but relevant nuggets of learning on easily accessible platforms, the initiative offers solutions accordingly. Digital, as a learning medium, goes beyond accessibility on various technology mediums. New-age technology features can make learning engaging, real-time and personalised.

“Powered by a state of the art technology platform, our Learning Management System provides a seamless learning experience combining instructor-led, self-paced, virtual classroom and mobile learning options. Learners are able to create personalised progress journeys by measuring outcomes and are encouraged to learn through activity streams and peer communities to promote collaborative learning,” Suri concludes as he shares that the Academy also incorporates technologies, such as gamification, location-based learning, adaptive learning, learning beacons and the like.