Article Description

Most corporate training programs fail to deliver ROI for FP&A. Carl Seidman explains why traditional approaches fall short and outlines how finance leaders can transform training into a true investment through long-term development ecosystems, real-world practice, and accountability.

Introduction

Recent hiring reports disclose that one of the greatest challenges companies face is a lack of properly-skilled workers. In the United States, unemployment is at an all-time low, and the number of job vacancies is at a high point. Simply put, it’s a peculiar time in the U.S. as companies are struggling to fill open jobs because the pool of qualified candidates seeking work is too small.  What’s even more interesting is not just that there aren’t enough qualified candidates seeking employment; it’s that the currently-employed professionals don’t possess the complete suite of skills that the company needs them to.  

How Could This Be Possible?  

In 2025, companies spent $88.37 billion on corporate training and development across the United States alone. Companies are willing to spend heavily on training; however, the Return on Investment (ROI) of professional development programs is far lower than desired. It begs several questions to be asked and answered:

1. Is the education that young people are getting in school failing to prepare them for the financial working world they are entering?

2. Why do experienced non-FP&A finance professionals lack the skills their companies need them to possess? Why is there such a disconnect between the skills current FP&A professionals possess and the skills companies need?

3. When addressing this disconnect, why do companies feel like they are wasting money on financial training programs intended to upskill their people?

Point #1: Lack of FP&A Education at Universities

Very few undergraduate universities, and even graduate programs, offer curriculum directly addressing disciplines under the FP&A umbrella. The academic world still largely revolves around credentials such as tests and test scores, but that is not how today’s business world works, and it never has. This all means that when professionals enter the workforce, very few possess the technical skills needed for higher-level FP&A work. It is often those individuals with MBAs or several years of experience who find themselves in FP&A management or on track for financial leadership.  

Point #2: Lack of Necessary Skills and Experience

Regardless of whether someone is in FP&A or not, without a well-thought-out development ecosystem, it is difficult for financial professionals to develop the skills and experience necessary to evolve within FP&A. One of the greatest challenges is that the skills needed early from FP&A professionals often don’t develop until several years into the job.  

While technical accounting and finance acumen matures quickly, critical-thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication often lag behind — leaving companies frustrated at the mismatch between what they need and what employees can deliver.

Point #3: Insufficient Training

A loaded question, the development of FP&A talent requires more than one-and-done training. While many companies are increasingly investing in e-learning, but virtual platforms by themselves have notoriously low participation and completion rates. In fact, studies by Stanford, Penn State, and University of Texas-Austin, report a dismal percentage of participants completing massive open online courses (or MOOCs). In some cases, it’s fewer than 15%. Online training portals such as Udemy and SkillShare have even more disappointing results.  

Finally, investment in live in-person programs is often celebrated as short-term wins but a long-term waste of money, because of a failure to hold attendees accountable and implement the learnings.

With these challenges, how can companies attract excellent FP&A talent, nurture their growth, and ensure they are getting an excellent return on their development programs?

Why Current FP&A Development Falls Short 

Some of the biggest shortcomings in professional development are:

• Focusing too much on compliance versus education
• Focusing too much on content and not enough on increasing business intelligence
• Focusing too much on skills, with not enough focus on implementation 

While L&D may be tasked with bringing in development programs, FP&A should be tasked with crafting the programming and helping L&D determine ROI. A small handful of companies, such as Cigna, Johnson & Johnson, and Raytheon, have adopted stronger development models, but most organisations lag far behind.

What Works: Building Long-Term Development Ecosystems

Instead of offering one-and-done live programming and mass open online courses, FP&A development programs should include long-term commitments to various financial disciplines, maturity models, and real-world challenges that are likely to be encountered throughout a professional’s work-life. 

Specifically, these commitments should address: 

• Career mapping
• Cross-training across finance and business functions
• Rotational programming
• Mentoring and coaching
• Blended live/virtual upskilling with accountability

This requires a vastly different philosophy than we have seen in the last decade, in FP&A and across many other functions.  While we have seen it succeed at several blue-chip companies and news-worthy start-ups, to say there is an enormous chasm across the majority of businesses, would be an understatement.

The Core Elements of Successful FP&A Learning

If an excellent ROI is to be realised in learning and development, what matters most is learning effectiveness and not the modality of how learning happens. 

The essential elements are:

• Real-world context
• Realistic practice
• Spaced repetitions
• Authentic feedback

Any training and development programming that lacks one or more of these core elements should be dismissed or amended to ensure such factors are included. When a company overlays such training with the long-term commitments noted above, they are better positioned to attract and nurture excellent talent.  

Conclusion: Turning Training from Expense into Investment

For FP&A leaders, the path forward is clear: build development ecosystems that combine technical training with business acumen, embed real-world practice into learning, and hold teams accountable for applying new skills. Without these elements, training will remain an expense rather than an investment.

This article was first published on Unit4.

Source:

1. https://www.usdanalytics.com/industry-reports/corporate-training-market