KPMG’s educational arm draws on a vast compliment of lecturing staff, all of whom are experienced in their own field, to provide an unrivalled multidisciplinary skill set.
Education is often referred to as the key to the future. The younger generations are encouraged to extend their studies further, to obtain qualifications with a view to be more competitive on the labour market. Equally, persons who are already in the workforce are encouraged to keep up to date with the latest developments in their field and gain new skills throughout their lives.
This relatively new reality has meant that several educational institutions have started to offer their services in Malta, yet few have the added advantages that KLA offers, as Jonathan Dingli, Partner and Head of KPMG Learning Academy (KLA), explains.
KLA is a unique educational institution that welcomes students from the business world, providing a bespoke offering.
“KLA’s tutors and lecturers are all seasoned professionals who have a wealth of experience to share with their students. In fact, subjects at KLA are all taught by specialist practitioners in their own field, who are best positioned to provide their students with actual insights and anecdotes that help them understand the subject matter better. Our lecturers can also share their experience from the field, and apply the theory to actual real-world circumstances, providing this unique combination of academic training and hands-on experience,” Dr Dingli expands.
Filling a gap in the market, KLA started providing Online CPE courses in 2013, and hasn’t looked back since.
“Back then, an eternity before COVID, or before any of us could ever predict how the online world would become such a natural extension to our physical lives, we had started offering online CPE courses. This was an innovative solution for the busy professionals who found it to be more convenient to obtain precious CPEs from the comfort of their offices,” Dr Dingli recalls.
KLA soon started providing ACCA tuition, which today is a core service the academy provides, and a backbone to the accounting profession. Dr Dingli, himself a lecturer, has taught ACCA in a number of countries including Poland, Greece, The Netherlands and China. KLA jointly offers the ACCA qualification with Kaplan, a prestigious and world-renowned ACCA tuition and content provider, having specialised tutors with experience in each practice.
“Today, we have grown to provide a myriad of subjects, from the technical to the softer skills, as the academy is looking to diversify its educational offering. For example, we have now started offering a learning suite dedicated to ESG (Environment, Social and Governance), a crucial subject for any company. Another suite of subjects we offer is dedicated to leadership, which provides courses that cover topics such as emotional intelligence, and other softer skills that are required for any professional, not just accountants,” Dr Dingli illustrates.
In fact, the subjects delivered by KLA can vary from Organisational Psychology to Value Added Tax legislation and requirements, Valuations, Financial Reporting and Complex Consolidations, Accountancy for non-Accountants, ESG and several others.
In addition, KLA is exceptionally geared towards designing specialised ad hoc solutions for companies, according to their specific needs.
“At KLA, we are proud to offer a bespoke, B2B service which is designed to help companies avail themselves of the courses they truly need, as opposed to enrolling their employees for seminars that would contain elements which are not required by their team,” Dr Dingli remarks. “Apart from the standard packages that our academy offers, we are also open to design courses according to the needs of our customers, following an informed conversation with the client. Our expertise in the field assures a superior service, and exceptional attention to detail”
KLA in fact draws on the vast compliment of lecturing staff, all of whom are experienced in their own field, to provide an unrivalled multidisciplinary skill set.
“This way we live up to our promise of cutting through complexity, by turning it into simplicity throughout the process. A Human Resources Manager won’t need to deal with five or six different training institutions to make sure their teams are being given all the tools needed to be at the top of their game – we are confident that we can provide excellent tuition and training in all fields,” Dr Dingli continues.
KLA also forms part of the wider KPMG international network, making it part of a large network of professional firms. “The opportunities are virtually endless and resources limitless,” Dr Dingli claims, as KLA, from time to time brings over specialist international speakers, who continue to add more value to the KLA educational offering.”
Looking to the future, Dr Dingli is quite ambitious for the academy which has been very successful in the last years.
“We want to continue building on the excellent results we have achieved and continue providing quality education and training to more and more companies in the future,” Dr Dingli asserts. “We have the potential of turning KLA into a fully-fledged campus, which on top of the undergrad certifications we already offer, would confidently venture into Master’s Degrees, Bachelors and Diplomas territory,” Dr Dingli affirms.
“We have the experts in the various fields, and the drive to make KLA a leading educational institution in Malta. We can’t wait to help more and more companies gear up, through a bespoke educational journey,” Dr Dingli concludes.
