The Wave Training Program is Changing Lives by Creating Opportunities for Ukrainians
Read the latest collaborative efforts between Deloitte and Salesforce in creating diverse workplaces.
Over a year into the Russia-Ukraine conflict, many people and organizations continue to look for ways to help. Deloitte is among those organizations and has shown support through relocations, donations and training. The Wave training program is helping Ukrainians connect to new jobs and find new employment opportunities.
What is the Wave Training Program?
Wave is a Deloitte Digital and Salesforce global training program designed to create a more diverse workforce and launch career paths for underrepresented groups in technology. Wave provides hands-on training opportunities that help bridge the gap between credentials and job offer extensions. Deloitte Digital aims to train more than 10,000 people through Wave.
“By 2026, the Salesforce ecosystem is predicted to create 9.3 million new jobs. It is important for us to help pave pathways to these new jobs by training new talent with the necessary skills to have meaningful and successful careers. In collaboration with Deloitte Digital, the Wave program is helping to bridge the digital skills gap on a global level and providing people in need access to the training and mentorship to land jobs in the tech industry with Salesforce skills.” – Hollie Suffield, Director of Partner Talent Alliances, Salesforce
About Wave Ukraine
The Wave Training Program for Ukrainians, also known as the Ukraine Cohort, was designed to train 100 Ukrainians dispersed across Europe for jobs in the Salesforce ecosystem. The initiative was led by Ausrine Balletta (Salesforce Consultant, Charlotte NC, US) and Zuzanna Skoczek (Sr. Consultant, Warsaw, Poland). This free training program includes access to:
- Salesforce Fundamentals – a free course that teaches people the skills, tools, and programs they need to build a successful career in the Salesforce ecosystem.
- Dedicated Trailhead Virtual Bootcamp – a series of courses led by Salesforce experts through live sessions to review concepts, further knowledge, and collaborate.
- Clicked – free live learning experiences, which enable people to practice their skills, build portfolios, and explore career options in the ecosystem.
The 14-week program is supported by Deloitte Digital professionals who run weekly sessions to help teach Salesforce skill and prepare participants for potential interviews in the Salesforce ecosystem. The goal is for participants to earn two certificates – Associate and Admin – and obtain other digital skills needed for employment by various technology companies across Europe.
How do Ukrainians fit into the broader Wave picture?
“The Ukrainian cohort is one chapter in our broad Wave ambition to launch a more global Wave program and to bring more diverse talent into the ecosystem. We believe that this is not only the right thing to do, but that diversity is imperative to delivering transformation and innovation to our clients.”
- Harry Datwani, principal and US Salesforce Alliance Leader, Deloitte Digital
“What excites me about training displaced Ukrainians for careers in Salesforce is that so many ecosystem jobs allow for mobility and work from anywhere. This means that eventually when the war in Ukraine is over, the Ukrainians should have a career that is easily transferrable if they decide to go back home.”
- Erica Adams, Specialist Leader and Wave Program Lead, Human Capital, Deloitte Digital
What participants had to say about the Program
Prospective Ukraine Cohort participants must be in Europe, have graduated high school, have professional working proficiency of English, commit 10-12 hours a week, and be interested in a Salesforce or technology career. The Cohort received over 350 applications for the 100 available spots. When participants were asked about their experience in the program they indicated:
“The program helps me to get the hard skills necessary to obtain Salesforce Certificates and polish my soft skills, which are crucial in the business environment. I get ideas on how a business/company can be better organized, optimized, and automated to make it more efficient and more profitable at the end.” - Julia Borysova (Ukrainian now living in Italy)
“The SF Admin role goes in between my current and former jobs (process and project management in publishing) and hobby in e-commerce. I see ways to use my new skills with my current occupation (mostly for e-Commerce) and I will be happy to find a job in the Salesforce ecosystem. The Webinars are great and very motivating, instructor-led sessions too. And I'm absolutely in love with Trailhead. I want to apply Salesforce logic to everyday tasks, from planning your daily shopping to complex work tasks.” - Olha Yelahina (Ukraine)
“I am happy to have joined the Ukrainian Wave Training program and grateful to Deloitte Digital and Salesforce for this initiative - with all the detailed information we get at the webinars, well-designed curated learning path, numerous educational perks, sessions with experienced Salesforce professionals and amazing mentorship from the Cohort Leads Team. I get inspired with the system possibilities, – discovering its configuration capabilities, creating custom setup and managing flows feels effortless and captivating. Having reached the Ranger rank in less than 2 months of study, I am now looking forward to getting my first certifications, hands-on experience, further growth and career opportunities!” - Iryna T. (Ukrainian now living in the UK)
In addition to the 100 participants in the program others were offered the opportunity to join in certain learning opportunities. One participant shared:
“Salesforce is a highly versatile platform that covers many aspects of business operations, including sales, marketing, customer service, and analytics. By gaining experience with Salesforce, you develop skills in areas such as data management, process automation, reporting and analytics, and customer relationship management (CRM). These skills are highly transferable and can be applied in many other areas of business and technology for building a strong foundation for a career and open up many opportunities for professional growth and advancement.” - Vtaliy Brenyk (Ukraine)
In addition to participating in the training programs, a 5-week hands-on training experience is provided through Clicked so that participants can apply their newly developed skills.
“Online training only gets you so far without real-life experience. Because of that, employers absorb extensive hard costs while using precious staff hours and have a lag in a new employee's ability to perform. Adding to that is that learners don't feel confident starting day one, which creates early-career anxiety, and a longer onramp to add value. At Clicked, we fill that gap and help smooth the transition process. Our goal is to find a way to fill that transition at scale and as fast as possible, and we have accomplished that with our innovative experiential learning frameworks.” - Jeff Sample, founder & CEO of Clicked
In addition, Deloitte Digital has connected with Focus on Force who provides the Ukrainian cohort participants with Admin Practice Exam vouchers.
"Focus on Force is very happy to support this initiative. While it is important to pass the exams and certification as it provides a goal and milestone, we have built a learning platform, with the objective of enhancing the learning of the topics covered in each certification. We hope that the students using our study materials and platform will find it a valuable addition to the other resources in their learning journey!"
- Martin Gessner, founder & owner of Focus on Force
For more upcoming Wave programs, reach out to us at SalesforceWave@deloitte.com and follow Deloitte Digital on LinkedIn.
