Seeking a way to improve the company's internal training methods, tax advisory consulting firm WTP Advisors has hired Kathi Mettler, a longtime Director in the International Tax Services Group at PwC and assistant professor at Fairfield University in Connecticut, to serve as their Director of Learning and Education. Kathi will use her classroom experience, as well as her tax expertise to help WTP's consultants hone their skills and bring their knowledge to a higher level. Eventually, Kathi says, WTP hopes to develop a program to offer training to clients as well. She's also been a strong advocate for women in the workplace, heading the Women's Networking Circles group at PwC to facilitate collaboration between women leaders.
Consulting: What will your role at WTP entail?
Mettler: Our goal when they approached me was to continue to enhance their trainings and offer an evolution of where we see the training going. What we're developing is really a start to finish program, which actually tracks the development as a company grows and expands, basically through the lifecycle of a company. Instead of using the former "old and cold" lecture based method, it's really going to be activity-based learning, so it should really elevate the learning of the WTP professionals to a higher level.
Consulting: Is this a newly created role?
Mettler: This is a newly created role. When I was at PwC I was 50 percent client service and 50 percent the national Director of International Tax Planning and Education. I was developing the curriculum, etc. Since then I transitioned into teaching full time. I'm in my third year at Fairfield University and I absolutely love it. WTP asked me to come in-house and help them ramp up their learning and education.
Consulting: How does what you teach in class align what your work will be at WTP?
Mettler: Actually it tracks very well. My career has been international tax. At Fairfield U., I've been teaching international tax and higher-level professional type curriculums as well as the required undergrad tax classes, Introduction to Taxation and Tax II, which really covers entity taxation, as well as tax research and everything you need to know to be a complete, well-rounded tax professional.
Consulting: You point out that you're seeing more female undergrads and accountants than males, what do you attribute that to?
Mettler: At PwC we were conscious of recognizing the value of women in the workplace. For years I ran our Women's Networking Circles group, and we had a lot of speakers come in who really motivated women. I think this was all the precursor to the great work that Sheryl Sandberg is doing with "Lean In" and everything she's accomplished since then. We were realizing there was a difference with how women would step up for work versus men. Men would automatically raise their hands, women would kind of think about it. Women have proved that they are vitally important to the future of our profession. The glass ceiling is crumbling. Although there are still roadblocks, every woman and man should operate as if everything is possible. I have learned that Teamwork and communication are my most powerful tools and that my success has been guided by my relationships, both personal and professional.
Consulting: What form will the "classroom" take internally?
Mettler: Recognizing the fact that WTP is such a large organization, we're probably going to utilize WebEx or some other type of training to allow people based in Chicago or outside the U.S. to participate in real time if they want to, and record it to give them access to it when they need it. You learn something as long as you can apply it. It's really a team-study based program with lots of active exercises to help them really practice it as they learn it. That's the only way you're really going to retain it. What I appreciate and I know what WTP prides itself on is that they really have that inverted pyramid where their professionals have much more experience than you're getting with a firm with the typical pyramid structure where they have a lot of junior staff.
Consulting: What are some of your goals at WTP?
Mettler: Short term I want to help develop and roll out this world-class training for our staff, which I think we're well on the way to doing. I think going forward we'll see whether that transitions to being able to offer training to other companies. I know when I was at PwC, clients would often come to us and say 'Hey, you have X kind of training you could offer to our staff.' And we would create something and go out to our clients and teach for a day or a weeklong training, whatever they needed. Hopefully at some point we'll be able to fill that need as well. In the interest of exemplary client service, we are always happy to share our tools and techniques with clients. This means that we will work with clients to develop meaningful trainings to help tax departments become better and more efficient.
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