At Accenture we hire great people and then we strive to help them become even greater. Whether it is for the next project, a promotion or general professional development, our training is designed to prepare our people for the next big challenge in their careers.

In Accenture, we believe that training should span an entire career—it is not just something our people do when they first join the company. That is why we offer approximately 80 percent more training hours than our competitors do and make constant investments in our employees’ development to keep them at the
top of their games.

In fact, in 2008 we invested over $900 million in training and professional development and provided 12 million hours in educating our people. But it is not just about the hours spent in training. It is making sure those hours are spent learning skills and growing knowledge. That is why our training programs are tailored to individual needs.

Our people also have the opportunity to learn from some of the best in the business—supportive leaders and colleagues who can pass on their industry, technical and functional skills. In fact, more than 160,000 Accenture people completed in excess of 15,000 different courses in 2007. We use a well-managed combination of courses, practical experience on the job and feedback to enable our people to develop specialist skills that help them grow professionally.

Training is conducted in a variety of ways at Accenture, from classrooms to the Web, both locally, globally, digitally and in person.

All our new recruits attend New Joiner Orientation when they first arrive, which gives them the essential knowledge they need to launch their Accenture careers, whether they are straight out of university or a workforce veteran. This program serves as an introduction to our global network even though it is conducted close to our people’s home locations. This is just the first component of training we give our people.

Many Accenture employees benefit from attending courses at the Q Center at St Charles, outside Chicago, Illinois, or at one of our regional training centers near London, England or Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At these locations, Accenture people gather to learn from each other, collaborate and build professional relationships that can last a career. Other classroom-based courses are also held at regional locations around the world.

However, learning does not stop when you walk out of the classroom. Our single global learning portal, myLearning, directs our people to over 20,000 online courses, virtual classroom courses and other learning resources to meet almost any business need. Our people also learn while they are on the job by using the Knowledge Exchange, our vast online portal. This means our people are learning every minute of every day of their Accenture career.