Overview
Grant Thornton Australia is a leading accounting, audit and advisory firm helping businesses and communities thrive in an increasingly complex world.
As technology and artificial intelligence reshape professional services, Grant Thornton Australia recognized that its people needed more than access to training. They needed clear development pathways, meaningful recognition, and a trusted way to demonstrate the capabilities they were building.
Jemma Hirst, Head of Digital Capability & Enablement at Grant Thornton Australia, saw an opportunity to make learning more visible and valuable. Her vision was to move beyond simply recording course completion and create an experience that encouraged employees to develop, recognize and share capabilities relevant to the future of work.
Grant Thornton Australia partnered with Credly by Pearson to bring that vision to life through verifiable digital credentials.
- Build: employees engage with technology-focused learning.
- Recognize: Credentials turn capability development into visible achievement.
- Share: Earners showcase trusted evidence across professional channels.
The Challenge
Grant Thornton Australia wanted to motivate approximately 1,250 employees to engage with technology training and strengthen their digital literacy.
The organization was investing in capabilities increasingly important to professional services, including artificial intelligence, digital innovation, and cybersecurity. However, completing training did not give employees a portable or visible way to demonstrate what they had learned.
- Encourage participation: Motivate employees to participate in and complete learning.
- Recognize consistently: Create consistent recognition across capability programs.
- Provide evidence: Give employees trusted evidence of their development.
- Clarify progression: Make development pathways easier to understand.
- Support culture: Reinforce a culture of continuous learning.
- Scale with priorities: Expand as new workforce priorities emerge.
Solution
Credly enabled Grant Thornton Australia to issue secure, verifiable digital badges linked to defined learning experiences and capabilities.
Employees can accept their credentials and share them through LinkedIn, professional profiles, email signatures and other digital channels - turning learning achievements into visible parts of their professional identities.
01. Learn: employees completed defined learnring experiences.
02. Earn: credentials recognize specific capabilities.
03. Accept: earners claim verified digital badges.
04. Share: achievements become visible across professional channels.
“Our goal was to make capability development visible and meaningful for our people - not simply to recognize that learning had been completed.”
Creating connected capability journeys with Collections
A successful credential program requires more than a catalog of individual badges. Employees also need to understand how credentials relate to one another and where their learning can take them next.
Under Jemma’s leadership, Grant Thornton Australia uses Credly Collections to bring related credentials together into coherent capability areas.
Collections make the credential experience easier to navigate. Employees can explore related badges, understand different levels of development, and identify opportunities to continue building their capabilities.
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AI Explorer: Foundational Foundational AI understanding. |
AI Practitioner: Experienced Progressive AI capability development. |
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AI Agent Designer: Internal Innovation Applied AI capability in an internal innovation context. |
Cyber Defender: Experienced Cybersecurity capability development. |
By combining foundational, experienced and applied credentials within structured capability areas, Grant Thornton Australia is turning separate learning experiences into clearer development journeys.
Impact
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93.6% Employee digital credential acceptance rate Employees actively claimed the recognition attached to their learning. |
51% Digital credential share rate Many earners showcased credentials externally. |
Grant Thornton Australia’s digital credential program has achieved a 93.6% badge acceptance rate, demonstrating that employees see genuine value in the recognition they receive.
Acceptance represents more than opening an email or completing a course. It shows that employees are actively claiming their achievements and incorporating them into their professional development.
The program has also achieved a 51% share rate, indicating that many earners are proud to showcase their credentials externally.
Together, these results show that employees are not simply participating in learning. They are engaging with the recognition attached to it.
Making AI capability visible
Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the skills required across professional services. Jemma and her team have responded by creating credentials that recognize different stages and applications of AI capability.
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AWARENESS AI Explorer: Foundational Recognizes foundational AI understanding. |
PROGRESSION AI Practitioner: Experienced Reflects further development and deeper skill building. |
APPLICATION AI Agent Designer: Internal Innovation Recognizes practical application of AI to internal innovation. |
Rather than positioning AI learning as a single training event, Grant Thornton Australia is creating a pathway through which employees can build awareness, deepen their knowledge and apply new capabilities. The credentials provide visible milestones along that journey.
Building a culture of learning and recognition
Digital credentials have helped Grant Thornton Australia connect learning with professional recognition.
Employees receive verifiable evidence of their achievements that they can retain and share. Grant Thornton Australia gains greater visibility into engagement across its capability initiatives, while Collections help make development opportunities clearer and easier to navigate.
The program also reinforces an important cultural message: developing new capabilities is not separate from an employee’s work or career. It is an important part of how people grow and prepare for the future.
Jemma’s role has been central to that shift. By aligning digital credentials with meaningful capabilities and designing an experience employees value, she has helped turn recognition into a driver of continued learning.
Forging the future through digital capability
Grant Thornton Australia now has a scalable foundation for recognizing the capabilities its workforce will need as professional services continue to evolve.
Jemma and her team can expand existing Collections, introduce new credentials and create further progression across AI, cybersecurity, digital literacy and innovation.
Program data can also provide insight into which credentials attract the strongest participation, acceptance and sharing - helping the organization refine its learning journeys over time.
For Jemma, the opportunity extends beyond issuing badges. It is about helping employees understand the capabilities they are building, recognize their progress and confidently demonstrate what they can do.
“This is about creating a culture where people can recognize their own growth and feel inspired to keep learning. Digital credentials give us a scalable way to celebrate progress while building the capabilities our organization will need for the future.”
Jemma Hirst
Head of Digital Capability & Enablement
Grant Thornton Australia
To learn more about how digital credentials can transform your learning and development initiative, speak with our sales team today.
