Accenture, a Fortune Global 500 company that specializes in information technology, offers an online training program known as the Skills to Succeed Academy. Its free online courses can help you build the skills and confidence you’ll need to develop a path to employment, succeed in your job search and be successful after you find a job.
The online Skills to Succeed Academy offers 36 modules, and each takes between 20 and 40 minutes to complete. It was launched as a pilot project in the U.K. in 2012 as a way to address youth unemployment. Skills to Succeed is now offered to people in 10 countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, the Philippines, Italy, South Africa, the U.K, the U.S., Singapore and India, and throughout Europe.
Once you register for the program online, it will ask your goal:
- I am beginning my career search
- I am looking for a job
- I want to brush up on my interview technique
- I am starting my first job
- I have a job and want to advance my career
- I want a different job or to change career path.
Choose one of these, and the site will provide a series of modules consisting of text and videos. The modules include real people talking about their experiences.
Skills to Succeed Academy’s Finding a Job course
For example, “identify your skills,” which is part of the Finding a Job course includes two young people talking about their experiences and skills, and explains how any job seeker can identify those experiences and skills and what they mean. Then the module provides a list of transferable skills you might have developed in the past that may be applicable to a job you’re interested in. These can be soft skills like teamwork or problem-solving or hard skills like math or IT skills.
It goes on to ask what kind of skills you have. You complete a quiz and then get a downloadable activity package – available in both English and Spanish – that reviews the material covered in the module and provides a template in which you can write down particular experiences and another template to determine what skills you developed from those experiences.
A module on grounding exercises can help you learn how to make it through stressful situations and respond in non-stressful ways.
The “ace your interview,” module lists some of the typical questions people are asked in interviews and how to prepare effective answers. It includes a video with a job seeker asking the type of questions that should be asked of the hiring manager at the end of the interview. It also includes three videos of people delivering an elevator speech and how to create one yourself. A section on body language covers posture, eye contact, gestures and a smile, as well as how to do a power pose. The module again ends with a quiz and an activity package with a checklist, interview tips, common questions and instructions on how to create an elevator speech.
These modules are only two that are included in the Finding a Job course. It has a total of 20 modules that cover topics like who can help you in your job search, how to create a resume and working your network.
Other courses focus on choosing a career and finding success
The two other general courses In Accenture’s Skills to Success Academy focus on choosing a career and finding success once you’ve got the job. Another set of courses is aimed at success in the digital economy and includes courses on lifelong learning, emotional intelligence, solving problems and thinking critically.
The six-module course on emotional intelligence includes a module on grounding exercises. These are important, because they can help you make it through stressful situations and respond in non-stressful ways. This module incorporates a variety of activities – a deep breathing exercise, using a grounding object, practicing thought replacement, practicing positive affirmations and taking a drink of water as a sort of meditative exercise.
Another emotional intelligence module highlights active listening and how to do it, an important skill that will serve anyone well in their job search, their work and their private life.
If you are looking for a job, you might want to take a look at the courses in the Skills to Success Academy. They don’t take very long to complete and will give you some tips and knowledge to improve your techniques in support of your job search and career.
