KPMG in India and NIIT Limited have entered into an exclusive partnership to launch the KPMG NIIT Finance Academy in India for building skills and talent for the Finance of the Future.  This was announced on the side-lines of Confluence 2019, NIIT’s annual customer conference. Designed as a center 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.  

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 utilization and technology skills and broader behavioral 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 organizations in India.”

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. All programs will be taught by qualified and experienced finance faculty. Apart from the regular faculty, all the programs will have guest lectures by finance industry experts who will familiarize the participants with the latest industry trends. The academy will be located at NIIT’s Gurugram center and most of the classes will be conducted there. However, based on client requests, some B2B programs may be conducted at client locations. The Academy will also offer customized modular programs for companies as per their requirements.

Bimaljeet Singh Bhasin, President, Skills and Career 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.”

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. 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 analyze 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. The move by KPMG and NIIT thus comes at the right time in order to develop future-ready talent requirements for the industry.