Accenture to colleges: Teach intellectual curiosity and adaptability to students

Accenture

With technology evolving at a breath-taking pace, IT services provider Accenture has a word of advise for engineering colleges: inculcate intellectual curiosity and adaptability for change to students along with core tech skills.

“Whatever you are doing today will not be relevant in the coming years but what you are doing today is massively relevant. The journey that students will end up taking with them will be a journey of fast-evolving landscape where they would be expected to learn on the go every day,” Parag Pande, Managing Director & Global Lead for HR Operations, Accenture, said at the HirePro Momentum’24 event.

The comments come at a time as many information technology companies have said artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are helping them to be more productive with fewer employees.

Also read: Productivity benefits from AI, automation help Cognizant work with fewer employees

While the foundational aspects remain unchanged, the rapid pace of change in both the business and technological landscapes necessitates a different approach to education, Pande said.

"The foundation of technology will not change. The education, that's important, and that helps people who join us become successful. But most importantly, remember, they are joining an industry that has a high pace of change," he said.

A deep intellectual curiosity and learning abilities are crucial for success in such an environment, he said. "As long as you are training people or helping your students own up intellectual curiosity, it will hold them in good stead because if they are deeply curious, they will actually be great learners," Pande added.

He also highlighted the need for educational institutions to move beyond traditional teaching methods. Accenture tackled the challenge of the outdated curriculum taught at educational institutions by democratising learning and sourcing content from the frontline, ensuring that new hires have access to up-to-date knowledge.

"We realised that that's also not good enough because a lot of our people are joining in technology like Generative AI, etc where the content is evolving as we speak," Pande said.

Accenture invests $1 billion annually in training its workforce on generative artificial intelligence.

Pande also urged colleges to prepare students to be comfortable with change, as the skills and knowledge required today might not be relevant in the future.

"So the sum and substance is, companies will hire employees and students for impact, which is here and now. But the journey that students will end up taking with them will be a journey of a fast-evolving landscape where they would be expected to learn on the go every day," Pande said.

Accenture’s workforce, the world’s largest IT firm, includes approximately 55,000 skilled data and AI practitioners. The company aims to double its data and AI workforce from 40,000 to 80,000 by the end of FY26.

Also read: India has less than 2,000 senior engineers who can build core AI products