Upskilling Students with Deloitte Digital AU

Welcome to our blog series, Salesforce Partner Success in the Classroom. Every month, we’ll introduce various Salesforce partners that support colleges in teaching Salesforce content or curriculum. Along the way, you’ll hear stories of the incredible work happening across the ecosystem to create and skill up new talent.

Today, we spotlight how Deloitte Digital is upskilling the next generation of talent for the Salesforce ecosystem. Claire Gillies, Lead Partner, Salesforce at Deloitte Digital, tells us about initiatives like the upcoming Salesforce Symposium, which is part of Deloitte Digital’s multi-year partnership with the University of Sydney.

Why is building an early pipeline of talent important to you?

Because of our size and position as a leading consulting firm in Australia, we have a significant role to play in helping students, grads, and others in the broader community to learn and develop new skills. We do this in a very structured way through our graduate program, which recruits one thousand new grads each year and allows them to gain skills and experience in areas like advisory, tax, and cloud consulting.

Outside of this, we work with many student societies on initiatives like our vacation internship program. The program offers participants a glimpse of what life is like at Deloitte and provides us with another source of new talent.

Tell us about the Salesforce Symposium.

In light of our multi-year partnership with the University of Sydney, we’ve worked with Salesforce to create a four-day symposium where we come together with other partners to deliver presentations, panels, labs, and hands-on activities to help students learn about the Salesforce portfolio and the different roles they can find within the ecosystem. The symposium is designed for University of Sydney students who have a Trailhead ID and at least ten Trailhead badges.

Deloitte Digital will be running day four of the symposium, which will focus on how students can build a career as a Salesforce Architect. Within ANZ, we’re proud to have supported three of our team members in their journey to become Salesforce Certified Technical Architects (CTAs). We now have a total of five CTAs on our team, and we’re always keen to promote their learnings and encourage others on this path.

How does this fit with your broader efforts to prepare students for the Salesforce ecosystem?

Deloitte Digital runs a Salesforce bootcamp for Salesforce consultants in our graduate program, and we also get them moving onto projects quite quickly, so they benefit from a good mix of technical training and hands-on experience.

We frequently partner with Salesforce to provide training to undergraduates, including Salesforce platform training and sessions specific to consulting and topics like agile delivery.

What challenges have you faced in delivering these programs?

Most of our challenges this past year have been related to the pandemic. Our previous intake of graduates began just as everyone started to work from home, so they missed out on some of the benefits that come with face-to-face networking and team building. Similarly, we were unable to deliver programs like the symposium in-person.

Now, training and activities such as our lunch-and-learns, games night, and team meetings are returning to being run in-person. These steps have been taken to respond to a hybrid approach to work that’s proving to be a great model, blending the ability to connect in-person with colleagues and teams while also having days to work from home.

What are some of the outcomes?

Our graduate and student-focused programs have been really effective in helping us build a strong pipeline of talent, and we’re really excited about the skills and energy that they bring to the table. They inspire everyone to keep pushing and take their careers to the next level.

What’s next for Deloitte Digital?

We’ve already put in place programs that encourage us to think broadly across a diverse talent pool, including a return-to-work program for parents who have been out of work for extended periods, and a neurodiverse program. But there’s always more we can do. We’re currently working with Salesforce to look at how we can leverage a program that our colleagues in America and Europe have been running. It’s a structured approach to identifying, training, and upskilling new talent into the ecosystem, but looking at talent pools outside of higher education. Watch this space.
 

For more inspiration on how to attract and build new Salesforce talent, check out the Talent Alliance and our university toolkit.