The Data Academy: our Data community
With Tech and Data skills in high demand, we want to make sure our colleagues stay at the top of their game and invest in their development while at Admiral.
And with our Data community growing in strength and number, we felt it was a great time to launch a hub for our Data colleagues, introducing the Data Academy.
Hannah Davies, Head of UK Data Academy, tell us more.
What is the Data Academy?
The Data Academy is a department that sits within our Data area. It has four main goals: to bring together our 600+ Data community in our UK business, to educate our whole business on using data skills, to champion diversity and inclusion in Data, and general data training and development.
When you join Admiral in a data role or team, you automatically join the Data Academy. As part of this community, you have access to first class data training, clear progression and development pathways, and benefit from our knowledge hub and extensive community experts. You’ll build a strong network across the whole business and strengthen your confidence. We host monthly learning events, run training sessions and development programmes, and publish monthly newsletters so you’re always ‘in the know’ about all things data inside and outside of Admiral!.
How did the Data Academy come about?
People have always been a key part of the Admiral culture and we know how important it is to invest in their development, especially in Data and Tech where skills and techniques are ever changing and in high demand. We wanted to demonstrate our focus and investment in these areas and be recognised as one of the best places to work for data professionals, and so we launched the Data Academy. It started as a plan on a PowerPoint slide, and today it’s helping us break down siloes, upskill and develop our Data community and bring data knowledge to the wider business.
What difference has it made so far?
There’s been great engagement across the community, and we’re seeing people jump into our course offerings and our monthly learning events which often welcome guest speakers outside of Admiral. We’ve got lots more to do, but we’re already seeing some great feedback on our development programmes, which we’re now on our 4th cohort of our Data Futures development programme in the space of 12 months! We’ve also been shortlisted for two awards, the British Data Award for Best Data Academy, and the DataIQ Award for Best Data Academy. We can’t wait to see if we win the DataIQ award in September, fingers crossed!
What are your long-term goals for the Data Academy?
Long term the Data Academy will roll out more courses, more ways to engage and learn together, and be the central place for all things going on in Data. It’ll be truly successful to me when we’re thinking about Data talent pipelines through things like apprenticeships and other entry routes. I’d also love to see more of our Data experts supporting community initiatives. Also, making sure everyone feels comfortable and equipped to use data in work, at home, and in our local community is key to our ambitions for Data culture and the Admiral business. Finally, continue our focus on diversity in Data, and truly being a great place to work for our Data colleagues, and shaping our Academy offering to support that employee lifecycle to achieve that is really the utopia!
If you want a Data role which empowers you to develop and be part of our Data community, why not take a look at some of our current vacancies?
