PwC’s Skilled Service Hub in Adelaide plans to double again

Adelaide’s remarkable transformation into Australia’s tech and innovation centre continues by the month, with PwC’s Skilled Service Hub providing the latest evidence after just one year of operations.

As a darkening cloud hovers over the consulting industry with news that McKinsey & Company and KPMG are set to slash their local and global workforces due to a downturn in demand, PwC has happily celebrated another recruitment milestone at its Skilled Service Hub in Adelaide, which was first announced in mid-2018 with the promise of creating 300 new jobs over the next eighteen months.

That timeline has now passed, but with it the professional services firm has easily surpassed its original recruitment target – and by a considerable margin.

Celebrating its one-year anniversary since opening its doors in Rundle Mall Plaza, PwC’s digital and tech-focused hub now has a headcount pushing 450, close to doubling its staff in just the past twelve months and swelling PwC’s total South Australia numbers to 700.

But PwC isn’t finished hiring just yet. Having already previously revised its target to 2,000 newly-created jobs over the five years from the hub’s launch, the firm is expecting to be half way there by the middle of next year with 1,000 people in total employed. Notably, 94% of those already employed at the hub are working full-time, with four out of five workers still under the age of 30.

“I am thrilled with how rapidly PwC’s Skilled Service Hub in Adelaide has grown and proud of the community it has become,” said PwC CEO Tom Seymour, who was in attendance for the celebrations alongside South Australia Premier, Peter Malinauskas. “A major benefit of the hub is the concentration of skills, which encourages and fosters an environment where people can accelerate their learning and development.”

PwC South Australia managing partner Jamie Briggs noted the one quarter of the hub’s employees who had relocated to South Australia from interstate. “The team’s technical and digital capabilities are extraordinary. They often work in highly complex, data-driven environments, using innovative methods to solve our client’s biggest problems – giving people a fantastic opportunity to kickstart their careers in Adelaide.”

One recent recruit, technology & data strategy associate Vesna Milenkovska, was looking to return to the workforce after spending the best part of a decade dedicated to full-time parenting, which she described as an incredibly daunting step and rollercoaster of planning and doubt – particularly with ongoing parental duties to juggle. Milenkovska had however previously spent more than a decade in IT.

“When I saw PwC’s advertisement for a job at the hub, it felt like the stars had aligned,” she stated. “I chose to focus on organisations that valued diversity, inclusion and hybrid working practices. Finally, I had found a workplace with a culture that matched. Two months in, and I feel I have been welcomed, supported and encouraged to dive into my role, and contribute quality work for our clients and firm.”