Work Academy
A pioneering project to accredit apprenticeships in the profession
Work Academy: PwC and CEU are re-writing the rules for in-service training
Imagine you've been successful in a recruitment process at one of the biggest professional services companies in the world. New job – it's time to celebrate. Maybe you go out with a few friends, or you take your family out to dinner. But does this mean your learning journey is over? Absolutely not! In fact, the learning process has only just begun – in fact, it’s about to get even more intense.
What is Work Academy?
How can you learn a profession? How do you learn to become a consultant, an auditor, or a tax expert? You have a degree, sure, but how can you keep on learning in the workplace and develop your career?
Work Academy aims to provide the answer. This pioneering project in Europe is the product of a collaboration between the leading professional services company PwC and CEU. This innovative scheme enables professionals to certify what they learn while doing their everyday jobs: PwC's teams of professionals can now obtain postgraduate qualifications from the CEU Cardenal Herrera University while working. This forward-looking initiative is a new way of doing things and a recognition of the fact that when we work, we also learn. This is why PwC has teamed up with CEU to offer its professionals a structured framework within which to develop and improve their skills. Right now, PwC is the only company doing this, and CEU is essential to its strategy.
The skills and competencies the professionals develop are certified with microcredentials, the qualifications of tomorrow, using cutting-edge Open Badges technology. In this way, the company's employees can receive badges to certify the training, experience and skills they acquire. These badges can be stacked into two university diplomas and ultimately a lifelong learning master's degree awarded by the CEU Cardenal Herrera University.
The Work Academy initiative will see round 4500 PwC staff gain university qualifications in this way over the next four years, enhancing their career prospects.
How does it work?
Hard work and outstanding professionalism is essential, of course, but PwC’s professionals also benefit from the fact that a certification structure has been put in place and time is set aside during the working day for training. They can gain a master's degree in 18 different specialist areas, such as financial and non-financial auditing, governance, risk, sustainability and compliance, business consulting, and strategic consulting.
Key characteristics
At PwC and CEU, what does it mean to lead the way?
At PwC, leading the way means doing things that others have not done yet.
At CEU, leading the way means daring to do what others dare not.
The desire to lead the way is what has brought PwC and CEU together. We share a vision of how professionals can develop their skills today to become tomorrow's leaders. Change is inevitable, yet many people are scared of it. Not us.
The vision we share means that PwC can now call on the first staff development system using stackable microcredentials which can lead to more traditional university qualifications. The desire to innovate in this way shows how highly PwC values the professionals who deliver its services.
The vision we share means that CEU is now the first university to certify professional staff training at a leading multinational company such as PwC.
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