James Kelly, CEO, Corndel
Describe your career to date
After leaving university, my first job at the House of Commons was as a researcher focusing on the UK labour market and skills development. After this, I moved into management consultancy, working on critical projects within the skills, education, and training sectors. In these roles, I understood the industry fully; what was done well and what could be done better.
I then spent time as a special advisor to the Secretary of State of Work & Pensions, seeing the huge difference that education and training can have on people’s lives. Recognising the changes in business skills required for the economy and changes in government policy, I started looking at business opportunities. I realised the biggest way to have an impact was through high-quality workplace training and development, and I wanted to be part of an organisation that brought a new approach to this area.
As a result, I co-founded Corndel in 2016, a strategic skills partner and data skills training company.
We’re all about delivering high-impact skills development programmes for the modern workforce, allowing individuals at all points in their careers to be their professional best in data, tech, and leadership.
With over 300 in-house professional coaches, Corndel delivers award-winning programmes to thousands of learners, allowing businesses to excel. Corndel focuses on programmes that give learners data analytical skills and data literacy skills to be high-performing business professionals.
Improving people’s lives through high-quality training has been the driving force of Corndel, and I’ve been so privileged to see the impact of our programmes on our learners and clients.
What key skills or attributes do you consider have contributed to your success in this role?
I have a broad range of career experiences doing many different roles and seeing how companies operate – this has given me an understanding of what works, what doesn’t, and what could be done better. I believe you get the best out of people by creating the best working conditions and treating people as adults.
What level of data maturity do you typically encounter across your client base and what tends to hold this back?
We have an understanding at Corndel, that data maturity pushes businesses to make better decisions and deliver better results. One of our most recent reports on data literacy discovered weak technical skills were a significant obstacle to data-driven decision-making for 47.5% of organisations.
From our client basis, we have encountered varying levels of data maturity; many are at the beginning of their digital transformation journey. In our work with clients from various industries and sectors, data maturity can only be achieved with a commitment to improved skills development across an entire organisation. It requires a data-centric culture to be successfully adopted and truly transform how a business handles its data.
Scalable, business-wide data literacy skills development is vital for organisations committed to data maturity. Data skills have yet to be democratised in most organisations, but providing a well-designed data skills development programme and promoting it accordingly within your organisation can change this. Data users are already in many different departments within organisations, not just in IT, so empowering them with data skills and knowledge further enhances business decision-making potential for a successful future.
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