Upskilling our people for the digital world

Building digital knowledge and learning new skills

The starting point of our digital transformation strategy was to define which technologies were material to our business today, and likely to impact us tomorrow. This resulted in seven technologies (the so-called 'essential seven' or 'E7') being identified to help us drive deeper focus and subsequent transformation into the business through upskilling and enhanced digital knowledge.

All PwC staff participated in a mass virtual training programme during the year. The programme covered data analytics, visualisation and robotic process automation (RPA). This was supplemented with regular internal digital events and meetups where staff were presented with practical applications from subject matter experts and colleagues who were applying the E7 technologies. 

• To support the learning offered, curated content was made available to staff through various channels:
• Knowledge bursts focused on the E7 were shared regularly via email and in the digital communities on the Google+ (now known as Google Currents) social platform, directing them to our ‘Digital Hub’ (PwC’s internal knowledge platform, which offers 310 pieces of curated content across 27 digital categories).
• PwC’s Digital Fitness Application, which also forms part of our New world. New skills global initiative, offered curated content via a gamified mobile application. The content covers all E7 technologies and references videos, articles and podcasts from trusted providers such as Harvard Business Review and Fast Company. PwC-developed content relevant to industry-specific areas is also available.

This new behaviour of digital upskilling was driven and supported by the FY20 organisational goals (key performance indicators or “KPI”s) set for each staff member in the Africa firm. By setting this individual goal we were able to ensure that a sound base knowledge was achieved, in preparation for the next leg of our digital transformation journey which we call “build and share”. Find out more about how we inspire our people.

With the growth of baseline digital knowledge across the E7 technologies, we then set and achieved ambitious targets to upskill the majority of our people in applied data analytics and RPA. This encompassed running virtual training programmes on Power BI (data visualisation), Alteryx (data transformation) and UiPath (automation). 

Building new value 

Having equipped our people with digital knowledge and skills, and with access to the latest technology, we started to focus on building new value where it mattered most in the business. 

We ran a number of business challenges, pushing teams to utilise their new skills to solve important problems. These were both local, within the wider PwC Africa business, and also formed part of the PwC Global Innovation Challenge (GIC). The annual GIC opened for entries in January 2020 with approximately 5,000 innovators participating and 353 new solutions submitted. 

We also explored how basic coding within Google’s Apps Script could be scaled across the business to improve, automate or transform current business processes. This has also given all our people access to an interface to experiment and grow their coding skills. 

New value has also started to be created through the introduction of chatbots to provide on-demand first level support across a variety of systems, including our core operating systems such as Oracle Finance and Projects, the platform we use to manage our engagements. This has allowed us to realise greater efficiencies and offer better support to our teams. The chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to understand what the individual is asking and then respond accordingly. Chatbots have also been critical to supporting our people while they are working remotely.  

Application of our digital skills and building assets in the cloud (Azure and Google Cloud Platform) using our PwC Data Platform has created the opportunity for teams to start working with data in smarter ways to create the best possible solutions for our clients. By connecting client, firm and third-party data with advanced technology we’re able to develop valuable insights for our clients.

Taking our knowledge gained to market

The last year has provided us with some unique challenges out of which have come some valuable lessons To share insights gained during our digital transformation journey, we’ve released the following publications: 

• Transformation beyond the technology - A PwC perspective
• PwC’s digital transformation journey beyond the technology 
• Leading organisational change in a digital world - A PwC perspective

Upskilling communities for the digital world

Providing access to digital technology and the skills to use it is vital to empowering people’s participation in the modern world. It’s also one of the most profound challenges we face, particularly in Africa and South Africa. In living out our purpose of enabling growth and development in Africa, we have focused on sharing what we’ve learned on our digital transformation and upskilling journey to help others with theirs. These have been delivered via our local CSI programme and PwC’s global New World. New Skills initiative.

Digital Fitness for the world

We’ve made the Digital Fitness App (developed to upskill our people) available for everyone to share with family, friends and the broader community. The app delivers curated content for users to explore with the objective being to enhance their understanding of new and emerging technologies. So far, we have 15,000 users across Africa and hope to increase this number exponentially in the coming year, working with clients and a broad range of stakeholders.

Find out more and download PwC’s Digital Fitness App.

New World. New Skills

We believe upskilling for a digital world is imperative and PwC is taking action globally. We are  focusing on upskilling our own people, working with our clients on their upskilling initiatives, scaling and refocusing our corporate social responsibility activities, and taking a lead in creating a broad call to action. Our goal is to drive change through businesses, governments, and individuals to ensure no person is left behind.

We’ve been on a journey to upskill our own people and through our New World. New Skills initiative we’re excited to share what we've learned and help businesses, governments, local communities and individuals accelerate their own upskilling journeys. We believe everyone should be able to live, learn, work and participate in the digital world, but that will require business leaders, governments and educators to work together to make the world a more resilient, more capable and more inclusive place.

New world. New skills. kicked off in second half of 2019 with the PwC South Africa focus on raising awareness of this global issue by participating in public discussion and sharing latest research and insights, engaging clients on their role in supporting upskilling broadly and their internal journey to upskill their own people. 

As part of this programme the team is also working to assist Government's efforts to support continued learning for students/learners during and post the pandemic lockdown via our Skilled for the Future and TVET programmes.

Joining forces to upskill the world's youth

UNICEF reports that 71m young people worldwide are unemployed. In South Africa, unemployment among youth aged 15–24 reached 59% in the first quarter of 2020.

The jobs of the future are likely to require new skills. Skills that are harder to come by in communities where opportunities are lacking. To help bridge this gap, PwC has entered into a global collaboration with UNICEF that aims to help upskill millions of young people.

The collaboration supports Generation Unlimited, a multisectoral partnership aimed at helping 1.8 billion young people transition from school to work by 2030.

In March 2020, PwC and UNICEF agreed on a three-year global collaboration, in support of Generation Unlimited. A key focus of the collaboration is South Africa, where we will collaborate with UNICEF and Generation Unlimited South Africa to: 

• Improve young people and employers’ access to information and services about learning opportunities through a new integrated data management platform. 
• Expand opportunities for young girls to access science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) related skills and work opportunities. This will be done by scaling up a local programme and delivering the experience virtually. 
• Enhance existing entrepreneurship programmes and related training curricula.

In collaborating with UNICEF we intend to work with - Technogrirl,  a programme specifically focussed on supporting and upskilling young women

• The Technogirl programme aims to encourage young girls to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering and Mathematics) careers by offering them job shadowing and digital learning opportunities over a 3 year period while at school. This is followed by an alumni programme where girls get support during their future studies and to access future job opportunities in their chosen field of study.
• As part of the global PwC/UNICEF collaboration PwC South Africa and UNICEF will be working with Technogril to enhance their programme to include even more girls in future intakes.