Accenture teams with MIT to bolster staff training

Developing the two-part course, which covers application development and design, took two years and will be on offer to 250 of Accenture’s 2,000 Australian staff.

“The course was designed specifically for technical consulting staff, of which there are 250 in Australia based in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane.” Accenture senior executive and head of technology solutions in Australia, Andrew Locke, told ITnews.

“The course targets junior members of the firm – with up to three or four years of experience – who are specialists in system integration. Trainees will gain certification as an application developer and an application designer – you do the developer section first and the designer one second.

“Gaining the certification involves a combination of formal training, some class room training, and a certain amount of job experience – the primary section of the training is on the job. Thirdly, there is a final exam.”

Accenture has been offering staff training programs independently for some time, but Locke believes that the new sessions in conjunction with MIT will shape staff members who are more marketable.

“We are definitely expecting that the training our people do will now be better quality than it was previously, [before MIT came on-board]. This certification is different from others in the market – there are a few around but they tend to be technology specific, whereas our offering focuses on certification as an IT professional as a whole,” he said.

“This course will help our people become better, more seasoned IT professionals, rather than just technicians. This training isn’t about only the language aspects of the technology, but also how to do systems integration work.”

The program was designed by MIT’s School of Engineering faculty which is residence to experts in Java, C++, SAP, host-centric and Microsoft technologies and the software development cycle.

Accenture invested US$700 million (A$851 million) in training globally during the US 2006 fiscal year which ended on 31 August 2006.