Thousands of workers at Jaguar Land Rover in Merseyside among 29,000 workers who will retrain to support the company’s rapid transition to electric and autonomous cars. Tony McDonough reports
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) says it will retrain 29,000 employees as it looks to accelerate its push towards producing electric vehicles.
JLR employs around 3,700 people at Halewood in Merseyside assembling the Land Rover Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque. They will be included in this upskilling programme which is vital to making electric, digital and autonomous cars.
By 2025 the company will become a pure-electric luxury brand. In the next five years it will launch six all-electric variants. And, by 2030, every one of its models will be available as all-electric.
Its Range Rover, Discovery, Defender and Jaguar vehicles are in demand around the world. More than 370,000 vehicles were sold in 123 countries during the fiscal year 2021/22.
Electrified models accounted for around two thirds of units sold. This is thanks to a model range that embraces fully electric and hybrid electric technologies, as well as the latest petrol and diesel engines.
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The company’s Future Skills programme will retrain more than 10,000 Jaguar Land Rover and franchised retailer employees in the UK. It will also include a further 19,000 assembly plants in China, Brazil, India, Austria and Slovakia and seven technology hubs around the world.
More than 9,500 apprentices are in training across JLR and its retailers, with hundreds more to be hired in 2023.
Barbara Bergmeier, JLR industrial operations executive director, said: “Our plans to electrify our product portfolio are running at pace. 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.
“Developing the skilled global workforces needed to design, build and maintain the vehicles of the future is foundational. I’m proud to say we are committing to help plug the electric and digital skills gap with a comprehensive, global training programme. This will power charge electrification both here in the UK and abroad.”
Around 80% of almost 1,300 franchised JLR retailers around the world offer electric vehicle servicing. To tackle the skills gaps, the company is ensuring the majority of servicing technicians will receive electrification training this year.
As well as technicians, JLR plans to retrain thousands of automotive engineers and production employees. They previously worked on the development of internal combustion cars and will now specialise in electrification, digital and autonomous cars.
Plant employees at all levels, including those at Halewood, will require training to ensure they can work safely alongside the high voltage systems in electric vehicles.
In August JLR announced it was collaborating with tech start-up Multiverse to enhance the data skills of its employees. It is the first of many initiatives planned by the company to increase data capability and invest in employees’ skills.