Grant Thornton and Estu launch new capability framework to help clients power innovation and transformation at scale
Grant Thornton UK has partnered with Estu to launch the Centre of Innovation & Change, a new practice-led capability framework designed to help organisations rapidly build in-house skills to deliver innovation and transformation at scale.
A cornerstone of the firm’s Future Skills offering, the Centre focuses on practical application, fast upskilling and immediate impact. Rather than traditional classroom learning, programmes are built around real organisational challenges, enabling learners at all levels to apply new skills directly in their roles and deliver results from the outset.
Co-designed by Grant Thornton and delivered by Estu, the Centre brings together a suite of apprenticeship levy‑funded programmes led by high-calibre tutors and experienced practitioners with deep expertise in large-scale transformation. Academic rigour is combined with real-world insight, ensuring learning is relevant, robust and grounded in what works in practice.
The Centre of Innovation & Change offers a scalable and flexible system for capability development, allowing organisations to target specific skill gaps or build enterprise‑wide transformation leadership over time. Designed to quickly build capability within existing teams, the programmes equip learners at all levels, from early careers to senior leaders, with the core skills needed to improve customer experience, adopt new technologies, enhance performance and lead complex change with confidence.
The launch comes as organisations across the public and private sectors face mounting pressure from rapid advances in AI and digital technology, rising customer expectations and large-scale structural change. Against this backdrop, the Centre is designed to help organisations turn strategy into action, building the in-house capability required to deliver lasting impact at pace.
The core elements of Centre of Innovation & Change framework are:
The Innovation & Change Leadership programme
Designed for professionals leading and shaping transformation across public and private sector organisations this programme is aimed at managers, senior specialists and transformation leads working in areas such as customer experience, operations, product, service design and organisational change, particularly those responsible for delivering innovation, service improvement and complex change initiatives.
Delivered over 15 months, the programme combines professional accreditation with practical, work‑based learning. Participants complete an apprenticeship alongside a Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Award in Leadership and Management, creating a pathway to Chartered status. Learning is embedded directly into live organisational challenges, blending service design, systems thinking, innovation strategy and change leadership to equip participants with practical tools to diagnose complex problems, deliver measurable outcomes and build lasting in‑house transformation capability.
Future Leaders in Innovation & Change
This programme is focused on early-career talent and those entering the workforce. It equips participants with the practical skills to contribute to innovation and change initiatives from day one, strengthening organisational talent pipelines while supporting social mobility and long-term workforce development.
Bespoke Transformation Academy
For organisations seeking to embed skills development into an existing transformation, the Centre enables clients to co-design bespoke Transformation Academies. These are fully tailored to organisational priorities, enabling consistent, high-quality capability development across multiple cohorts and functions.
Simon Littlewood, CEO, Estu
“For organisations to be the most adaptable to change, their people across roles and functions need to be equipped with relevant skills and capability. Understanding value, designing better services, commercial and critical thinking, effective communication and change leadership all create the bedrock for cultures that drive effective transformation and continued agility.
This exciting partnership with Grant Thornton provides an exceptional opportunity for learners to develop these skills and embrace change confidently, learning from world leaders in innovation and service design alongside sector and commercial experts.”
Ruth Walsh, Head of Future Skills Consulting and Partner at Grant Thornton UK, commented:
“Our partnership with Estu is built on a shared commitment to practical, user-centred learning that delivers real and lasting change. Our research has shown that apprenticeships continue to play a central role in workforce planning for businesses in 2026. An encouraging 76% of businesses view apprenticeships as important to their workforce strategy, with 33% seeing them as critical for closing skills gaps.
“We are delighted to partner with Estu on this pioneering apprenticeship and through Grant Thornton’s huge pool of experience over many years of helping our clients manage and thrive through change help new organisations at this time of unprecedented opportunity. The challenges of adapting to AI, stepping up in changing global markets and staying ahead with regulatory and political change all provide opportunity, and also bring a degree of risk. It’s how we give people the skills to navigate these changes that dictate our future. I am excited to bring this apprenticeship to market with Estu and empower learners with the many skills they will learn through it.”