- Axcel, Alpine Investors’ professional education business, acquired Accelebrate, an IT training company that provides hands-on, live, technical training on-site and online. Accelebrate will partner with Axcel’s IT training company, Web Age Solutions. Effective with this partnership, Accelebrate’s founder, Steve Heckler, will continue to support the company by advising on Accelebrate’s growth plans and future objectives and supporting Accelebrate’s work with its largest clients. Accelebrate is Axcel’s fifth acquisition and joins Axcel’s suite of professional education companies, including EduMind, Michael Management Corporation, Interskill Learning, and Web Age.
- Accenture Song and Urban Edge Network, LLC, announced their collaboration to launch Project XL, a talent program and platform to build a new pipeline of Black talent at scale that introduces students from underrepresented historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to leading companies for training and upskilling. Project XL offerings include access to Accenture’s Student Leadership Program, personal development, and diversity technology summit externship opportunities. Project XL also encompasses integration into school syllabi, working with provosts, deans, and professors. Additionally, Project XL presents marketing opportunities through Urban Edge Network’s HBCU League Pass Plus network, delivering access to HBCU sporting events, TV shows, marching band competitions, eSports tournaments, podcasts, and more. Accenture currently is teaming with Dillard University, Fisk University, Grambling State University, and Livingstone College to foster relationships with and to upskill Black talent in North America using Project XL.
- Valor Manufacturing Training, with investment support from the BERKS Investment Group, acquired 180 Skills. The new entity focused on workforce skills development and training is now called WorkForge. The new company offers specially configured career pathways, visual work instruction, and a hybrid leadership development program, along with technology and enablement services.
- Walmart selected Springboard, an online learning platform preparing students for in-demand careers through mentoring and instructor-led programs, to offer tailored upskilling and reskilling programs through Live Better U (LBU), the retailer’s education benefit program offered at no cost to 1.5 million Walmart and Sam’s Club associates in the U.S. Springboard will offer courses in data analytics, software development, and data-driven strategic thinking. Programs will be offered through Springboard for Business, which focuses on the development of employees at Fortune 500 companies through cohort-based, human-guided programs that combine one-on-one mentorship with live and instructor-led sessions.
- Explorance, a provider of people insight solutions, joined the World Economic Forum New Champions Community, where it will collaborate with purpose-driven, high-growth companies that are championing new business models, emerging technologies, and sustainable growth strategies to create a better future. Explorance will contribute its decades of knowledge, technologies, and guidance on talent management, learning and development, measurement, and addressing global skills gaps.
New Training Partnerships and Alliances (April 2023)
The latest training industry mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and more.
