Real World IT&T and Tech Reskilling Successes
Putting theory into practice –recent reskilling case studies
Online, offline, adding value, building teams, taking business leaders forward to better support their companies – different reskilling programmes and approaches can deliver more for the employer and employee alike.
Building a new team of business analysts
This multinational information technology services and consulting company was facing a shortage of UK-based business analysts with strong RPA (Robotic Process Automation) skills. This left them struggling to meet rising client demand. Without an existing RPA training capability, Capgemini looked outside the organisation for talent support.
A bespoke RPA training programme with clear attainment goals for candidates was created. Bolstered by input from external and client mentors, the programme developed a cohort of semi-skilled candidates into a team of highly specialist RPA business analysts – and giving them immediate capacity to meet their client needs.
The outcome: 100% success rate, with all programme candidates now working on various delivery projects. The programme has been expanded into other areas of Capgemini’s business, including data engineering and business monitoring.
“The Train-to-Fit programme team is a key pillar of our approach to hire skills that are difficult to acquire in the market. This has helped us to shortlist strong, semi- experienced candidates who are then given additional on-the-job training with existing teams to develop the specialist skills we need – all the candidates selected as part of this programme are now successfully working on various delivery projects.”
Vasan Srinivasan - Head of Delivery Centre Services and Automation at Capgemini.
Finding diamonds in the rough
Babcock International are a global organisation with a diverse portfolio of operations. They provide engineering and technology support to military platforms such as ships, submarines, land and aviation defence, as well owning, maintaining, and developing critical infrastructure, including civil nuclear projects. With work locations scattered across the UK, many of them outside of the major cities, they were struggling to recruit and retain skilled workers, even as they were aware of a ‘ticking talent time bomb’, where their future talent needs would become very difficult to meet.
Working with ManpowerGroup, Babcock began a new Train to Fit programme that went beyond the parameters of their existing talent-building activities – casting a wider net for potential project managers. This was talent that may not have had the exact skills the roles required, or could tick all the job description boxes, but who had the raw talent that could be shaped to perform with excellence within Babcock’s future workforce strategy.
The programme concentrated on soft skills and characteristics more than hard skills and specific industry experience. Selected candidates were chosen for their potential for a role, instead of their specific skill sets. Growth mindset, a capability to deliver and a readiness to take on Babcock’s principles were as important as hard skills learned elsewhere. Candidates came from within Babcock as well other industries, and after being trained to fit roles within the organisation, many have gone on to achieve results as good as, and often better than, workers with years of experience in those same roles.
The outcome: Since the initial programme, Babcock are now scaling Train to Fit into other areas of the organisation and for completely different roles. More noticeably, Train to Fit has been nominated for a training industry award based on the success of the programme.
“The talent shortage gave us an opportunity to think okay, if we can’t get precisely what we need, what are the characteristics that we'd like to see in the people we want? if we're going to sift, perhaps there are some diamonds in the rough. So, that’s what we did, using the ManpowerGroup Train to Fit programme, we widened the field, and suddenly, we were seeing a completely new group of people who had the profile to drive the roles we wanted.”
Jimmy Williams, Group Project Capability Manager at Babcock International.
A Blended Approach
QinetiQ is a multinational defence technology company headquartered in Farnborough, Hampshire. It operates primarily in the defence, security and critical national infrastructure markets and conducts testing and evaluation capabilities for air, land, sea and defence target systems. Along with many other UK A&D organisations, they were struggling with an acute talent shortage even as they attempted to meet growing demand for systems engineering skills.
With limited internal resources available to reskill employees, they turned to ManpowerGroup to develop a sustainable talent pipeline to match and supply their future skills needs. The solution produced a 12 months programme that blended bespoke training delivery, on-the-job training, and hands-on experience that upskilled selected current workers and gave new trainees the incentive of permanent employment on completion.
The outcome: 100% success rate, with the programme expanded into other areas of the business, and four programmes delivered over the past four years.
“The programme has been excellent in helping us achieve a talent pipeline for difficult to hire systems engineering skills. We hired 100% of the consultants Experis provided and helped to train. These individuals are now all contributing successfully to customer projects, and we are now working on our next programme.”
David Venn, Head of Systems Engineering, at QinetiQ.
