Blog
Blog • • 5 minute read

The Associate Academy: What's Next in 2025

The Associate Academy, evolving from the ACSE Development Program, has significantly expanded since 2022. Integrating sales and engineering, it now partners with key teams to equip associates with essential skills. With a focus on continuous improvement and strategic growth, the Academy prepares early-career talent for diverse roles, driving impactful business outcomes.

In this blog

  1. Strategic Partnerships
  2. Expanding Reach
  3. Success
  4. The Playbook
  5. 2025 and Beyond

Since March 2022, the Associate Academy has experienced tremendous growth! What began in late 2020 as the "ACSE Development Program" with a narrow focus on developing early-career, pre-sales engineers for the Global Enterprise Sales (GES) team has evolved significantly.

Associate Academy Staff

In the first year, while working with the Sales Development Program, it became clear that the curriculum could be applied to both sales and engineering roles across the sales organization. This led to the integration of sales and engineering and the rebranding to the Associate Academy.

 Strategic Partnerships

Today, the Academy works closely with the Client Development Team to equip Client Development Associates (CDAs) with the essential sales, business acumen, and account planning skills needed for success. In addition, our strategic partnership with the Technical Operations Center of Excellence (TOCE) has become a vital bridge program, offering Technical Associates ongoing development and hands-on training in Consulting Systems Engineer (CSE) operations. These two collaborations are pivotal to the Academy's continued growth and will evolve further in the year ahead.

 Expanding Reach

As leaders in the field began to see how well the academy was preparing these associates, the interest in early in career talent began to grow outside of our originally intended target.  Engineering leaders in Public Sector, Global Service Provider, and GS&A looked to us as a source for early in career talent and we've now delivered eight associates into those organizations with requests coming in for more from future cohorts.   

This delivery beyond the traditional GES sales teams has forced us to begin crafting specific learning paths within the academy to best prepare our associates for the roles and the teams that they will go to after the academy.  As we speak, academy staff are developing learning paths for Cyber and AI, and are building a CCNA prep course to even better prepare our associates. 

In fact, our curriculum is continually evolving to meet the needs of the business.  In Spring of 2023, we added a programmatic rotation in the NAIC.  Cohort members, both technical and sales, spend three days working on the floor and in the labs at NAIC2.  This rotation turns out to be a mutually beneficial initiative with our associates getting an immersive learning experience and the NAIC getting some labor assistance in advancing particular program timelines.  

In addition the Associate Academy went global in Summer 2023 when we took responsibility of the UK Apprentice Program, using its curriculum as the foundation. The program offers early-career talent an alternative to university, combining the Academy curriculum with on-the-job training and a university degree. It demonstrates the company's commitment to developing the next generation of technical sales professionals.

As the Academy has grown, we've expanded our staff in both the US and UK, adding a mix of experienced sales/technical experts and professional educators. This blend of skills ensures associates receive a world-class experience throughout the program.

 Success

We take great pride in the results below, as they reflect the hard work and dedication of the entire Academy team. Continuously measuring our success allows us to evaluate our effectiveness, identify areas for improvement, and ensure we are consistently meeting the needs of both our associates and the business. By tracking these metrics, we can make data-driven decisions, optimize our processes, and ensure that we are delivering measurable value at every stage of the program.

 The Playbook

At the Associate Academy, our approach to delivering impactful results is grounded in a set of core principles that guide everything we do. These principles ensure operation, iteration, and alignment with both the needs of the business and the growth of our associates. By fostering a culture of accountability and adaptability, we create a program that not only meets but exceeds expectations.

Operate
  • Follow our established playbook.
  • Maintain consistent processes and common language.
  • Ensure repeatability and sustainability.
Iterate
  • Continuously improve, adjust, and optimize.
  • Be flexible within a framework.
  • Major changes require thoughtful discussion.
Align
  • Keep our customer's (Sales Teams) needs at the forefront.
  • Adapt to business needs.
  • Ensure all actions align with and advance our mission.

We also embrace "Extreme Ownership" — a mindset from Jocko Willink's book — where every team member takes equal responsibility for the program's goals and outcomes. This approach has proven invaluable to our success.

 2025 and Beyond

Looking ahead to 2025, the Associate Academy will build on the solid foundation we've established, continuously improving and refining our framework. We'll add relevant content to the curriculum and strengthen policies, procedures, and playbooks for consistency and efficiency. This year will see the graduation of our current US cohort in the summer, with the addition of our sixth (and possibly seventh) cohorts. Our UK Apprentice cohort will complete their program and transition to the field in September, making room for a new cohort to begin in the Fall.

I'm incredibly proud of the progress we've made since the last update. The Academy staff has been outstanding, and our business partners continue to support our evolution. The alignment with our OEM partners has also been crucial to our success, and we deeply appreciate their support.

The trust and investment from our executive leadership have been invaluable, providing the freedom to build a world-class program that stretches beyond its original scope. Most of all, I'm proud of each associate who has come through the Academy. Watching them grow, contribute, and make an impact has been the highlight of my career.

In 2025, we expect continued growth, expansion, and even greater impact on the business, with the Associate Academy at the heart of it.

To stay updated on the Academy's progress and learn more, follow us on our Community Page.