Workforce Management (03/11) Kranz, Garry

Consulting giant Deloitte expects to complete work on a $300 million “learning and leadership development” campus near Dallas this summer and begin offering training and development programs in October. The 107-acre Deloitte University will feature 35 classrooms, each outfitted with technology for interactive learning; the self-contained 712,000-square-foot-complex also will include an 800-room hotel to house employees. Deloitte has scheduled more than 420 learning programs for the first year of operation, and the campus is expected to deliver more than 1 million hours of training per year, which is about one-third of all of its U.S. training. Interactive training activities such as computer-simulated business scenarios, case studies and role-playing will be the participatory format, and will help force employees to anticipate hypothetical problems, devise solutions as a group and see things from the client’s point of view. Some of the firm’s U.S. partners, managers and executives will serve as instructors, and there will be one Deloitte leader to serve as a sounding board for about every five training participants. Employees will be invited to attend Deloitte University. “It’s basically a leadership laboratory that gives us the opportunity to see how teams react, and then provide immediate feedback on their decisions,” says Bill Pelster, a managing principal for talent development. “It’s important that our leaders be in the classrooms to teach and mentor the next generation of Deloitte professionals.”

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EDSI Commentary

Classroom instructor-led programs are not dead.  Deloitte is investing a significant amount in bricks and mortar.