A training programme developed by JLR to provide a new career route for the next generation of budding digital engineers has helped deliver more than £430 million in value for the business over the past year.
JLR’s Data Engineering Conversion Programme, which was launched in 2021, has provided dozens of new data engineers within JLR with new skills.
Digitally skilled colleagues are now able to use data to predict global supply and manufacturing challenges. This means JLR can make decisions to protect build schedules for its strong order bank of over 150,000 vehicles, contributing to a best-ever cashflow performance for the business for the first half of the 2023/24 financial year.
The multi-million-pound return in value was achieved by developing digital tools to deliver process efficiencies, automate parts ordering to protect supply, and monitor global industry trends to understand the risk of future challenges and trigger mitigation activities.
These digital tools are also enabling JLR to achieve its sustainability goals, which are at the heart of the company’s Reimagine strategy. For example, they enable JLR to process data on vehicle CO2 emissions optimisation and manufacturing waste management, supporting JLR’s commitment to be a net-zero carbon business by 2039.
JLR’s use of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) products to deliver this suite of tools has resulted in a Google Customer Award for Manufacturing in 2023, which recognises innovative use of its products on a global scale.
The training programme has seen 30 colleagues ‘graduate’ since its first cohort. Those graduates worked their way through an eight-week intensive course followed by an additional six-months of once-a-week training before being embedded in specific areas of the business to support their digital needs.
The activity is another key part of JLR’s commitment to providing digital upskilling for its workforce, as part of JLR’s Future Skills Programme which supports its Reimagine strategy to make its modern luxury vehicles available in pure electric form by the end of the decade.
The programme complements JLR’s partnership Multiverse Data Apprenticeship scheme, already underway, as well as the recently announced Everstream Analytics partnership which embeds artificial intelligence into JLR’s supply chain mapping capability.
“The Data Engineering Conversion Programme has helped us to further invest in our people and fulfil their potential.
“We didn’t look for previous experience or technical skills in our programme’s candidates, but rather the qualities and values which we felt would complement the training that the programme provides.
“Our ‘graduates’ are now embedded across the business as data engineering experts empowered with ability to make data-driven business decisions using bespoke digital tools that can be developed in days, not months, using GCP.
“This in turn allows us to generate savings and invest in more technology, such as vehicle electrification and advanced autonomous driving, and to be more resilient to the continuous challenges that the global automotive industry faces.”
Christine Kemp
Chief Data and Digital Product Officer at JLR
“Medicine had given me lots of relevant skills in this new career but I started to look for qualifications that would empower me further, and this is when I came across the JLR Data Engineering Conversion Programme.
“It was everything I was looking for, and more, because by moving to the central data engineering team, I am able to work on products for many different areas of the business and therefore have an even bigger impact.
“I’ve now passed my Google Cloud Data Professional Engineering Certificate. I get a lot of satisfaction from knowing that what I do is valuable to the business, so I am immensely grateful that JLR supported me in this second and hopefully final career change.”
Hanae Gourier
Senior Data Engineer
SOURCE: JLR
