The move aims to address emerging skills gaps in the company's transition
Automobile company Jaguar Land Rover has announced its plan to upskill 29,000 workers to support its goal of electrification by the end of the decade. In an announcement, the company said its Future Skills Programme will train more than 10,000 Jaguar Land Rover and franchised retailer employees in the UK as well as nearly 19,000 workers across the world in skills vital to "electrification, digital, and autonomous cars."
It will prioritise the electrification training of servicing technicians this year to address the skills gaps, in which only around 80% of nearly 1,300 franchised retailers offer electric vehicle servicing. In addition to technicians, the company also plans to retrain in electrification its automotive engineers and production employees who used to work on the development of internal combustion cars.
Read more: How to upskill top-performing employees
Plant employees across all levels will also require training to ensure that they can work safely in the company's plants, which the company said are already ramping up production of electric cars.
"Our plans to electrify our product portfolio are running at pace, and we are rapidly scaling up our future skills training programme to ensure we have the right talent to deliver the world’s most desirable modern luxury electric vehicles," said Barbara Bergmeier, Jaguar Land Rover industrial operations executive director.
According to Bergmeier, it is essential that the global workforce is developed to design, build, and maintain the "vehicles of the future."
"I'm proud to say we are committing to help plug the electric and digital skills gap with a comprehensive, global training programme, which will power charge electrification both here in the UK and abroad," Bergmeier said.
The company also said it is already training more than 9,500 apprentices across Jaguar Land Rover and its retailers, with hundreds more to be hired next year, so the next generation can get the "key skills" on electrification and autonomous driving.
The company's Future Skills Programme is dubbed the key to the success of its Reimagine strategy, which aims to make all Jaguar and Land Rover modern luxury cars available in pure electric form by the end of the decade.
