JLR says 95% of its global retail partner technician workforce is now EV trained, with further training underway for 11,000 manufacturing colleagues to build BEVs.
JLR’s Future Skills Programme is supporting the transformation of its facilities for electric vehicle production. The company says this is progressing quickly, with electrification training for over 11,000 manufacturing colleagues now underway.
These training programmes are delivered through the JLR Learning Academy, which invests around £20m a year to train employees and partners. Looking forward, JLR says it will be training at a further 15,000 employees across manufacturing, engineering and workshops as part of the programme.
Earlier this year JLR announced a drive to recruit 250 electrification engineers to work at its Gaydon and Whitley facilities. This included more than 40 specific battery engineering roles, covering advanced energy storage systems, battery cell design, and cell stack assemblies, as well as hardware and software for battery and electrical systems. The company now says it has opened an additional 950 electrification roles in FY24, to grow this skills base.
Apprenticeships are also an important part of the drive to improve the company’s skills base. In February this year JLR announced it was opening up the entry requirements on its apprenticeship programme for 2024 to attract candidates from a broader range of educational backgrounds.
This has allowed candidates with BTEC and T-Level qualifications to apply for its Level Four Higher Apprenticeship in engineering, alongside candidates with A-level maths. The company also added a further 50 places to its 2024 apprenticeship scheme bringing the total number of available apprenticeships to 350.
The company points out that electrification is creating more opportunities for people from diverse backgrounds and that in contrast to operations on traditional ICEs, work on EVs is less manual and more process oriented. JLR says this makes it accessible to a wider range of employees, including those from neurodiverse backgrounds.
JLR says it has also introduced several other initiatives to enable those from more diverse backgrounds to access a STEM career, including:
• A virtual work experience programme with 2,000 enrolments in eight weeks with of which 31 per cent are women and girls.
• A schools partnership programme to encourage students from diverse backgrounds to begin a career in STEM.
• Working through partnerships to attract more diverse candidates in the JLR’s Early Careers scheme.
• Using AI to make job description wording more diverse and inclusive.
No comments yet