Aiming high with GBI

Our Group Business Intelligence (GBI) team have won the coveted ‘Best Development Program’ award at the 2019 Data IQ Awards.

Designed to reflect the deep skills, commitment and capabilities of individuals, teams, organisations and solutions, the annual Data IQ Awards celebrate the top performers in data and are the most coveted trophy in the industry.

The GBI team at Royal Mail has built a diverse, high-performing and passionate team through a combination of in-house training, apprenticeships and innovative recruitment methods.

Academic outreach and commercial partners have been combined to support both early career opportunities and reskilling.

A data science foundation course provides training around advanced concepts, with fortnightly lectures, self-learning and exercises. Through partnerships with a range of universities, a regular seminar programme allows external speakers to showcase the latest research and applications. The team has 10% of its time allocated to training to allow for ongoing learning and development in this way.

Working with QA, GBI is offering a Level 4 data analyst apprenticeship from which the first cohort will emerge later this year with new hires already having been made. This includes one apprentice who is returning to work having been a stay-at-home parent. There is also a plan to extend this to a Level 6 data science (BSc) degree apprenticeship and Royal Mail is part of the trailblazer group defining the standard for a Level 7 AI data specialist (MSc) degree apprenticeship.

Chief data officer, Wade Munsie, said: ‘This award recognises our efforts in creating development opportunities at multiple levels as well as creating and retaining talent.

‘A big shout out to Kat James and Jeremy Bradley in particular, but it’s the whole team together that make us the best place to work and the first choice for budding data professionals.

‘Please join me in congratulating the team in doing something nothing short of extraordinary.’