Jaguar Land Rover graduate programme
Who are they?
The JLR analytics centre of excellence is a newly-formed team which has a vision to create competitive advantage for the business through world-leading analytics. It is building a multi-disciplinary team to help deliver new sales insights, business behaviours and process automation.
What do they do?
JLR launched an analytics graduate programme with an industry-leading training programme at its heart. The goal was to attract a diverse range of candidates into the CoE as well as to maintain the momentum of the analytics transformation within the business. With limited entry-level opportunities into the analytics industry, JLR recognised that it needed to build a structured graduate scheme which could exploit the threefold level of applications it receives for graduate posts compared to experienced hires. Starting in September and running for two years, it provided on-boarding, manufacturing placements and a personal impact week for the 14 successful applicants. These had a 50:50 gender split, ranged in age from 21 to 29, came from six different countries and held 10 Masters and three PhDs across 21 different subjects. Based on a skills assessment, a matrix of skills development needs was created which included a six-week induction into applied analytics, with weekly business challenges and parallel technique training. Candidates are rotated across data science, data engineering, analytics and programme management in their first year, with their choice of specialisation in year two.
What did the judges say?
With the graduates having delivered £12 million in benefits to date and running training sessions for others, the impact of the programme has been felt right from the start – the judges expect it to accelerate in the future.