Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has announced a partnership with training platform Multiverse to offer more than 400 UK staff a specialist course in computer programming and data analysis.
The 15-month training programme begins with basics including fundamental database skills and how analysis is used throughout the industry, with real-world case studies.
The course later touches on specialist areas including machine learning and two ‘hackathons’. These are effectively collaborative races to produce a functioning piece of software in a short time window (usually 24 to 48 hours), promoting teamwork and providing valuable experience in working under pressure.
The Multiverse tie-up follows the recent establishment of a multi-year partnership with American artificial intelligence (AI) and computer components giant Nvidia to introduce heightened connectivity and autonomous driving functionality to JLR cars launched from 2025.
JLR chief data officer Clive Benford said: “The management and utilisation of increasingly high volumes of data in this new era will be central to Jaguar Land Rover’s future.
“We need to create a data-first mindset that will support our growth, enhance the customer experience and increase the productivity and expertise of our teams.
“The primary goal of our partnership with Multiverse is to empower all our employees to utilise data, gain insights from it and develop valuable solutions.”
The programme is “one of the largest data apprenticeship programmes ever launched in the UK”, according to Multiverse founder and CEO Euan Blair.
The renewed focus on education is a key tenet of JLR’s Reimagine strategy, which aims to establish the two brands as leaders in the luxury EV market.
Land Rover’s first electric car – a Range Rover EV – will arrive in 2024 and Jaguar will be relaunched as an EV-only luxury brand the following year.
Autocar spoke to JLR CEO Thierry Bolloré in June. He said the Reimagine plan was potentially “even a little ahead” in places but that it had been simplified in “some areas so we [JLR] can go faster”.
But JLR faces significant financial hurdles to overcome if it's to successfully execute the Reimagine plan.
It reported a loss of more than £500 million in the first quarter of the 2023 financial year, primarily because parts shortages significantly limited its capacity to produce the new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport.
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I've just managed to fill in my BS Bingo card twice over!
Honestly... If you want to do AI and data analysis in the UK you talk to people at Warwick and UCL - one of the best in the world works there. But if you just want to have it analysed you talk to Oracle as they know what they're doing. Especially with IOT.
If you want to talk to somone clueless you interview Thierry Bollore, the worst automotive CEO. At least Tobias Moers knew to give up! He's doing nothing but killing off Jaguar instead of walking it through a hybrid period and expanding the electric range. i-Pace was once ahead of the game, but has been left to rot. Extremely poor management.
And Bollore lost the designer Thompson too.
Just watching with dread the mess that Thierry Bollore will make of JLR like virtually every other role he's had...
World's worst automotive CEO. Honestly, I don't see why they picked him for the role.