PwC partners with Coursera to power innovation and support aggressive revenue goals

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has long been committed to the success of businesses and individuals in India, creating opportunities that strengthen the country’s national and regional economies. In fact, one of PwC’s stated purposes is to build trust in society and solve important problems. That same commitment to serving clients and communities across India is also evident in the opportunities PwC creates for its employees, including offering access to world- class learning and development.

In February 2022, PwC India added Coursera to its in-house learning ecosystem to leverage SkillSets, Guided Projects, and Clips. The partnership with Coursera is fundamental to PwC’s commitment to knowledge sharing and professional development. With a focus on technology and data analytics, the Coursera offerings provide employees valuable upskilling to further enhance client services and support PwC’s goal to increase revenue 2.5x by 2027.

CHALLENGE

PwC India was challenged to establish a digital culture company-wide and offer all employees a digital baseline of knowledge. It had also witnessed a rapid expansion of its workforce - growing from 13,500 to 21,000 employees in just over a year. PwC India needed a best-in- class online learning partner that could scale to ensure teams had the technical, digital, and executive expertise to deliver outstanding client services while cultivating a culture of continued learning.

“PwC’s services are complex and touch many areas of a clients’ operations,” says Manpreet Singh Ahuja, Chief Digital Officer, PwC India. “Our employees have to be experts who can quickly address any business challenge. This requires a highly engaged learning and development environment that rewards success and encourages knowledge sharing.”

Building an environment for digital upskilling allows PwC India to cost-effectively train more people and offer more and enhanced client services. The company continues to create hyper- customized learning paths based on insights backed by Coursera data, making learning relevant to all stakeholders.

When Coursera was initially introduced, PwC India saw an immediate, 20% workforce engagement. As the word spread and employees shared and celebrated their Coursera certificates and badges, adoption surged. With more than 16,300 enrollments and over 37,000 learning hours, PwC India employees demonstrate the demand for Coursera and current learners relate the skills they’ve developed to better performance on the job.

One employee remarked, “Coursera is an excellent platform for upskilling. I appreciate that PwC gives us the opportunity to continue learning and challenging ourselves. I have completed many courses, including Python, Data Analytics, and Automation technologies. These have given me valuable skills for challenging projects that I have worked on.”

For PwC India leadership, the biggest success metric is the ongoing innovation in its Digital Lab. Instead of emphasizing learning hours, Ahuja focuses on the ongoing exchange of solutions and ideas as more employees create and use micro-assets.

“Coursera is the foundational platform for our deep skilling curriculum. Employees who have gone through a deep skilling curriculum have built more than 650 assets. There are more than 35,000 visits to the Digital Lab with an active user count of 7,000 and over 4,700 downloads,” he says. “This knowledge sharing demonstrates our employees’ commitment to growth and to supporting their colleagues – sharing skills means more opportunities for employees and for PwC India.”

With the introduction of nano-learning, powered by Coursera Clips, employees and leadership teams gain a deeper understanding of subject matter that drives client conversations and delivers better client experiences.

MOVING FORWARD

“Our partnership with Coursera empowers us to keep pace with our significant growth,” says Ahuja. “Through learner-led, high-quality, Coursera content, employees are inspired to innovate and advance in their work. With knowledge sharing and continued learning, we can increase productivity and keep delivering the excellent client services that support our revenue goals .”