With $1.4B Investment, Deloitte Looks to Reshape the Future of Learning and Development

NEW YORK, Dec. 14, 2022 — Deloitte today announced a $1.4 billion investment to enhance its professional development experiences, doubling down on its people and setting a new industry standard for learning and development (L&D).   

Inspired by the top speed of thought — 120 meters per second — Project 120 curates highly personalized learning and development pathways to develop critical tech and leadership skills among its growing employee base ahead of tomorrow’s market demands. Through this bold, transformative investment, Deloitte will enhance its tech and leadership curricula and expand Deloitte University facilities, including new future academic and business collaborations.  

Deloitte’s investment comes at a time of unprecedented technological and societal change. As the new world of work continues to shift, expectations of companies’ role in society and the lives of employees and communities continue to escalate. But even amidst economic headwinds, Deloitte is betting big on L&D to answer the call.  

“At Deloitte, our people are our greatest asset, and Project 120 is an unprecedented investment in their potential,” said Joe Ucuzoglu, Deloitte US CEO. “Now’s the time to transform how we think about learning and development. It’s not just about business performance. It’s about enabling our people to feel even more fulfilled and driven by our work and our purpose, which in turn drives better business outcomes.” 

Anticipating the market  

Traditionally, professional development focused on upskilling performance for current job and market demands. Deloitte’s Project 120 takes a more predictive approach. With Project 120, Deloitte anticipates the needs of its professionals, clients, and the broader market in advance, designing customizable and immersive learning experiences to address needs as they are identified and deploying those trainings at the pace of innovation.  

Project 120 is already delivering over one million hours of training on future applications of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, cyber, data analytics, 5G, and quantum computing through the Deloitte Technology Academy. Even beyond enhancing skillsets around specific technologies, Project 120 is building learning experiences that allow people to do work differently and transform how Deloitte delivers value to clients —from using analytics to create the audit of the future, to using automation in streamlining the work of tax professionals.  

In this era of great disruption and transformation, professional growth becomes a more dynamic, always-on endeavor. Deloitte also sees the potential of Project 120 to democratize tech and leadership expertise, so that professionals across the organization can develop the agility for tomorrow’s client needs and begin to shape the markets of the future.  

“Project 120 enables more tailored, relevant and in-the-flow learning for all professionals, building agility now for the business opportunities tomorrow,” said Deloitte’s Chief Talent Officer, Stephani Long. “We’re reimagining learning experiences, and I’m confident our new approach will continue to meet and exceed the evolving needs of our people and our clients.”  

Preparing our people to thrive  

Earlier this year, Deloitte set out to understand how its already robust technology and leadership offerings could be further bolstered. Leaders gathered 150,000 data points from talent surveys, conducted 100 one-on-one interviews with business executives, did extensive market research, and leveraged a workforce -sensing tool to identify the skills of the future. What resulted is an upending of the traditional competency-based, top-down model in favor of an employee-led, data-driven approach — one that helps build not just better work, but more fulfilled employees.  

“We feel an immense responsibility to support the growth of our people,” said Anthony Stephan, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and Project 120 Executive Leader. “Project 120 broadens the aperture of professional development from focusing solely on the professional to focusing on the individual, enabling them to thrive holistically in business and in life.”  

For instance, Deloitte recently identified higher stress levels among a cohort of executives and, within weeks, curated a personalized learning experience on processing emotions as data and moving to a place of action. 

Project 120 embeds worker well-being into L&D by developing skills like awareness, attention, acceptance, and belonging — elements today’s talent values highly. In fact, the 2022 “Deloitte Global Millennial & Gen Z” report found that L&D opportunities ranked second among the reasons respondents chose to work for their current organization. To that end, Project 120 also meets professionals where they are, with omnichannel learning pathways like on-demand resources, interactive labs, and gamification that fit into employees’ lives and work. 

“Our approach to learning and development acknowledges the demands and preferences of all generations,” added Stephan. “We’re optimistic about technology while recognizing our continued obligation and opportunity to help prepare our people for the future of work.”