KPMG in India, a leading professional services firm and NIIT Limited, a global leader in Skills and Talent Development, have entered into an exclusive partnership to launch the KPMG NIIT Finance Academy in India for building skills and talent for Finance of the Future. This was announced on the side-lines of Confluence 2019, NIIT’s annual customer conference, tailor-made for leaders to come together, connect, and collaborate to discuss the role of learning in driving transformative growth in the wake of digital disruption faced by businesses across the world.
Designed as a centre for future skills in finance, the Academy will offer futuristic programs in finance to fresh graduates and experienced finance professionals to address the changing talent requirements that evolving business models, regulatory changes and new-age technologies are bringing forth as they drive both disruption and transformation in the finance function.
As per KPMG International’s recently released ‘Future Ready Finance Survey 2019 – Learn what high-performing organizations are doing differently’, one of the top 5 goals and initiatives is to ‘Invest in and enhance finance talent and skills’. Further, 78% of surveyed Finance executives expect automation to significantly impact its workforce by liberating staff from spending time on manual processes and freeing them to focus on higher value-added activities. As per this survey report, in addition to traditional finance competencies, future finance teams will require process management and exceptional management skills to administer digitally-enabled processes, digital finance experts and data scientists to analyse internal and external data to provide critical insights to the business.
This indicates that the finance function across organizations and geographies is experiencing an increasing skills gap as most of these future oriented skills are in short supply and high demand. To this end, the finance academy jointly set up by KPMG in India and NIIT has designed programs to cater to the future-ready talent requirements for the industry.
Sai Venkateshwaran, Partner and Head of CFO Advisory at KPMG in India and Global Lead for Smart Digital Finance, said, “The finance workforce of the future will need well rounded finance technical skills combined with data utilisation and technology skills and broader behavioural skills. We believe that this finance academy will help address a critical component on talent and skills that forms part of the finance transformation journeys of all large organisations in India.”
Bimaljeet Singh Bhasin, President, Skills and Careers Business, NIIT Ltd., said, “At NIIT, we have been working with the industry and the student community for over three decades and have a keen understanding of the changing workforce requirements brought in by digital disruption. Therefore, we are delighted to partner with KPMG in India, one of the leading providers of risk, financial services and business advisory, to offer futuristic programs in Finance to fresh graduates and finance professionals. Together we hope to bridge the skill gap that the industry is currently faced with.”
Karan Marwah – Partner and head of the KPMG Academy at KPMG in India, said, “Changes in the way businesses operate and are governed by evolving regulations and rapid advancement in technology are disrupting the finance function, leading to the automation of traditional financial tasks like bookkeeping, financial analysis and forecasting. With the launch of this finance academy we are confident of creating a large pool of industry-ready talent who are ready to meet the needs of the finance functions of the future.”
The Academy will primarily offer four programs: a program for fresh graduates who aspire for a career in finance; a similar program to help companies in on-boarding fresh talent; an intermediate program for companies to upskill and reskill mid-level finance executives and an advanced program that will help companies to upskill and reskill experienced finance professionals.
In addition, the learners from the graduate program will get placement opportunities for finance and accounting roles with some of the biggest companies operating in the country.
Amit Roy, Chief Financial Officer, NIIT said “The role of a finance professional today has shifted from crunching numbers and recording transactions to applying the latest technologies and skills to derive business insights. Towards this, the finance academy jointly launched by KPMG in India and NIIT will offer futuristic programs in finance to help graduates and working professionals in bridging the skills gap.”
