“Major Investment in AI Reskilling: Udacity Acquired and LearnVantage Launched by Accenture”

Accenture has announced its acquisition of Udacity, an e-learning platform, and the launch of LearnVantage, a digital education and reskilling platform. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Accenture is gearing up to make a significant impact in enterprise reskilling.

With this acquisition, Udacity’s 230 employees will join LearnVantage, a platform aimed at training clients. Udacity, which was founded in 2011, boasts 21 million registered users across 195 countries and a vast content library. Competing with platforms like Coursera, which has been rapidly expanding its enterprise training offerings, LearnVantage will also seek to collaborate with the ed-tech ecosystem, including Coursera.

In a statement, Accenture revealed plans to collaborate with AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, as well as other e-learning players like Coursera, Pluralsight, Workera, and Skillsoft on generative AI certifications. The company will be investing billion over the next three years in the LearnVantage initiative, focusing on personalized training in generative AI, data science, cloud, security, and CXO lessons.

Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture, emphasized the importance of reskilling and training in today’s rapidly evolving workforce. Sweet stated that the goal is to assist clients in becoming “talent creators” by placing people at the core of their reinvention through the use of technology, data, and AI. Part of this strategy involves investing in industry-specific training and technology skills development.

LearnVantage is just one piece of a larger effort to reskill Accenture’s 700,000 employees. The company plans to roll out data and AI training to 250,000 technology professionals, with more than 600,000 employees already benefitting from the Fundamentals of AI program.