I am an engineering degree apprentice at Rolls-Royce and typically find myself solving technical problems, taking part in improvement projects or designing aerospace components.
But in my most recent placement in R2 Data Labs, Rolls-Royce’s data innovation catalyst, I found myself focusing on the organisation’s cultural challenges, specifically its digital culture.
Back in March 2020 our in-person Digital Expo came to a grinding halt as Covid-19 transformed our way of working. Fast forward five months to September and the idea of a revitalised virtual expo was born.
Since then I’ve had the incredible opportunity to lead a small, talented group of people from R2 Data Labs to deliver a three-day fully virtual conference focusing on digital upskilling and learning.
This complemented the Rolls-Royce Group’s Covid response, which included a campaign called Helping Your Prepare, which opened up all our digital skills and culture training courses to the world for free and to which 25,000 people have since taken part.
Keeping that global perspective, for the first time we had 1,400 registrations from colleagues to deliver, listen, showcase and discuss all things digital. From Singapore to India to Germany to the US, it was one of the most diverse line-ups in both breadth and seniority of our business. The impacts of the event are still being felt, but it has been the catalyst to spark debate and intrigue.
As an apprentice having the opportunity to lead on this was fantastic, seeing first-hand the work that goes into transforming our business and our people. The support I received from my team was phenomenal, but most importantly they empowered me to be able lead.
It was fascinating for me to interact with our senior leaders and listen to their sessions articulating the changes we need to go through and how we enable that through a digital-first mindset.
I joined Rolls-Royce back in 2017 and thought I had an idea of the skills and qualities needed to be successful as an engineer, but if my work with the R2 Data Labs and this expo has taught me anything it is how to approach things differently; how to use digital as an enabler; how to question and challenge positively; and how the skills needed for the engineer of tomorrow go far beyond maths and science.