Case studies

The goal

EDF Energy partnered with Multiverse to assess skills and competencies across several business units.

"While many organisations know instinctively that they have skills gaps, it’s a challenge to identify them, quantify them, and close the gaps. We have big ambitions, including in helping the UK to decarbonise to reach Net Zero, and we can’t let skills gaps hold us back. Identifying and closing those gaps is helping us deliver on our goals, and enhanced data skills across EDF to help our customers save carbon and cash."

The Multiverse skills analysis found that, of employees who use data daily, 19.9 hours a week were spent on data tasks, including predictive modeling, engineering data, producing visualisations, managing spreadsheets and analysing data.

The results

The skills assessment found that almost half of that time could be saved, if employees were more skilled users of data.

Identifying room for efficiency gains, EDF launched a Data Academy, enrolling staff onto apprenticeship programmes.

"At EDF, we recognise that a data transformation takes more than new technology, change needs people to create a culture that uses data to take action. We partnered with Multiverse to actually find where the company would benefit from building broader capabilities beyond data teams, enhanced existing skills, and put in place the Data Academy to deliver them."

The goal

Goldsmiths, University of London, partnered with Multiverse and invited staff across all functions to enrol in the Data Academy.

Here, they learn skills including analytics, AI and predictive modelling that can assist with their day-to-day tasks.

"Since beginning with the Data Academy, we’ve felt the benefit of improved day-to-day data capabilities across the organisation. Individuals have started thinking in ways they wouldn’t have before, identifying opportunities and working on achieving the outcome themselves."

The results

Throughout the programme, employees at Goldsmiths learned how to:

• Build a data culture – upskilling has empowered individuals across the organisation to become ‘digital professionals’, reducing their reliance on the IT department.
• Create new efficiencies – teams at Goldsmiths have optimised internal processes using skills learned on the programme, streamlining workflows like manual data entry.

"I recently spoke to one of my colleagues in the accommodation department, who used to have to transpose data from one spreadsheet to another and into a system on a regular basis. He’s now developed a Python script to automate this. Everyone has their own example of a piece of automation that has helped them to streamline their tasks. You’re creating a more efficient organisation, and that starts with individuals."

Upskilling the workforce at your university

Data skills have transformed how staff at Goldsmiths work, take ownership of data, and provide the best possible experiences for students.

Learn more about how Multiverse can support your university to identify skills gaps and build new opportunities through upskilling.

The goal

HCLTech's AI academy aims to upskill its workforce in AI and generative AI (GenAI) to deliver significant business value to clients with AI solutions and boost overall productivity.

The AI Transformation Academy

The partnership will see select HCLTech employees in the UK embark on a 13-month ‘AI for Business Value’ programme, with a focus on business benefits and ethical aspects of AI projects.

This initiative aligns with HCLTech’s goal of upskilling 50,000 employees in GenAI by 2025, improving productivity and enhancing client and employee satisfaction.

"This strategic initiative underscores HCLTech's commitment to harnessing AI responsibly to drive business outcomes. By partnering with Multiverse, we are not only equipping our workforce with advanced AI competencies but are also amplifying our capacity for innovation and excellence in service delivery."

Upon completion of their training, employees will be better equipped to analyse their AI-integrated performance metrics, fostering a culture of insightful continuous improvement and maximizing individual and team potential.

"Through this collaboration, we aim to position HCLTech at the forefront of ethical AI deployment, ensuring that our clients benefit from the transformative power of AI while upholding the highest standards of integrity and productivity."

"Capturing the potential gains from AI doesn’t just rely on technology and deploying the right models, it also requires individuals equipped with the right skills to apply it in the real world. HCLTech plays a pivotal role in the global tech arena and their clients depend on its cutting-edge capabilities. By empowering teams with advanced AI skills and instilling confidence, HCLTech and its clients are set to unlock the transformative potential of ethical, precise and productivity-enhancing AI."

The goal

London Business School's vision is to have a profound impact on the way the world does business and the way business impacts the world. It's consistently ranked among the best business schools globally and is widely acknowledged as a centre for outstanding research.

The School equips its diverse student body with the tools needed to tackle today’s business challenges and connects them with many of the world’s leading thinkers.

London Business School launched the Multiverse upskilling programme to drive their data-driven culture.

"We’re constantly using innovative technology and data to enrich the lives of our students. Multiverse’s programme enables us to increase our data skills and take our data maturity to a whole new level: equipping staff across the School with the data skills they need to thrive in their careers and to support our students."

The solution

Employees are honing their data skills in order to increase their confidence in using and sharing data, alongside driving productivity gains.

There are now 26 employees on Multiverse data upskilling programmes across the entire organisation, including Technology, Finance and Digital Learning.

"Through the data apprenticeship programmes, our staff are helping to build an insight-led culture, where data is used to drive operational and strategic business decisions."

The results

Productivity gains

Apprentices are reaping the benefits from the data upskilling programme in their day-to-day roles, with a 14% improvement to average productivity since programme launch.

Employee progression and engagement

Apprentices are more confident to use their skills and share their learning. 36% report a growth in confidence when using their new skills in their roles.

"We can all benefit from the ROI of the Data Academy to support our data transformation journey, which will touch all parts of the School."

The goal

Essex County Council (ECC) has launched training for 40 of its staff through a new Data Academy, as part of its ambitious plans to become a data-led organisation.

The goal is to strengthen the organisation’s data capabilities, while boosting productivity and data literacy across teams. According to Multiverse’s Skills Intelligence Report, local government and councils are notably impacted by a lack of data skills, with 26% of employees’ time working with data spent unproductively.

"Essex County Council provides a diverse learning programme designed to help our colleagues confidently engage with data, fostering evidence-based decision-making at every level. By participating in the Data Academy through the Apprenticeship Levy, we are further investing in our workforce, ensuring they understand the purpose and potential of data. "

The solution: The ECC Data Academy

Programmes include Data Insights for Business Decisions, which equips commissioners working within ECC with the technical skills and knowledge to navigate the data landscape confidently.

The 13-month Data Fellowship, a Level 4 apprenticeship, will upskill data professionals, while the degree-level Advanced Data Fellowship will give graduates the tools to build data analytics capabilities within the organisation and use data to support decision-making.

Staff enrolled in the Academy also have the opportunity to complete a 13-month Business Transformation Fellowship, which covers key competencies that are most relevant to doing business in the digital age, including defining business objectives, exploring opportunities for digital innovation and adopting agile ways of working.

"This initiative encourages responsible data use, strengthens robust data processes, and promotes collaboration with our partners. Ultimately, it enables us to leverage data insights to enhance social good and improve outcomes for communities across Essex."

The Data Academy is funded by the Apprenticeship Levy, a UK tax on employers that is used to fund apprenticeship training.

"Essex County Council will be on the front foot in data-led decision making and process modernisation thanks to the skills they will gain on these apprenticeships. All the while, by developing the skills of its people the Council will enhance their careers and access to the best opportunities."

The goal

As the world’s leading consumer trend forecaster, WGSN has over 20 years’ experience in forecasting, data analytics and expert advisory - helping brands around the world create the right products at the right time for tomorrow’s consumer.

But the team’s analyses are only as good as the data that goes into them. That’s where partnering with the right internal subject matter experts is crucial.

To reduce the pressure coming into the company’s central data teams, while continuing to drive innovation across the organisation, the data analytics leaders at WGSN are driving forward a business wide data initiative.

This initiative places a focus on data acceleration to support colleagues in varied departments to gain confidence in data skills and usage. A goal that they would soon find out, would help drive both productivity and revenue.

"At WGSN I have two important roles; one is to lead the data science and analytics team - the other is to elevate the data analytics capability of the organisation overall. By upskilling individuals to become data efficient in their varied roles and functions, meant that they could move the business forward and deliver products and services without dependency on the data analytics and science team."

The solution

Solving for data skills company-wide

WGSN has over 250 in-house industry experts, data scientists and advisory consultants. With this large of an organization, serving clients in over 120 countries, the data team at WGSN was receiving regular requests for data support from colleagues in different global departments.

Evolving data capabilities organisation-wide meant that teams in departments from content to client advisory could better utilise data to serve WGSN’s clients and partners.

By offering both beginner level and advanced programs, WGSN made data skills accessible for employees across the organisation, regardless of their individual starting point.

With an increased focus on expanding their quantitative data capabilities to match their qualitative capabilities and accelerate the process, the team at WGSN knew they’d need a forward-thinking learning partner to help bring their vision to life.

That’s when WGSN found Multiverse.

Building future data scientists

Multiverse’s data upskilling apprenticeships are establishing a firm foundation in data analysis across WGSN - helping employees translate data into insights, build data-driven narratives, and present key findings.

"We sit in a really exciting place. We work with the most innovative brands and retailers across the globe. As they’re having a stronger lens on data, this has really pushed us to think about how to best align. Today, we’re aligning data dynamically on every level and aspect of what we do — how we bring that forward, and how we connect and collaborate, is really core to the team that I’m a part of as we think about our clients."

As a participant in the data program herself, Rachelle knows just how valuable strong data skills can be. Charged with forging meaningful client partnerships and trend collaborations, she’s witnessed the value of organisation-wide data literacy firsthand and even managed to use her new skills to take an existing client deal and double its value - all down to the addition of data capabilities.

The results

Driving revenue

WGSN has witnessed the tangible benefits of the program on key growth targets.

"In terms of retaining clients, identifying and taking advantage of upsell opportunities, the data acceleration program has had a direct impact. A lot of businesses didn’t realise just how much data and analytics WGSN had available to support their project goals. Once they saw how embedded data was in our forecasting process, it helped us win new business."

Empowering meaningful ways of collaborating with clients

Since the start of the data acceleration program, the WGSN partnerships team has been able to:

• Create new data-led reports that are now some of the most popular among clients
• Bring forward key pieces of research partners might not be utilising
• Unlock new paths of collaboration with different teams and departments
• Understand partners’ evolving needs to bring forward products that support their top priorities

Armed with the right data and reports, Rachelle and the account management team were able to deliver strategic value to their partners, including one key client who was seeking deeper insights on seasonal trends.

"Having a stronger lens on data is really empowering our account management team to drive more meaningful ways of collaborating with our clients. Data really helped us bring that missing piece of the puzzle into a partnership and grow that investment 56% year-over-year as we were activating different parts of what we do to better serve their needs."

Transforming careers

The team at WGSN also witnessed a deeply human value-driver, both in their existing employees and incoming apprentices.

"Up until May, I was a client service admin. From May onwards, I began my new role as a business intelligence developer at WGSN,   “Everything that happened at WGSN in terms of my career path matched up perfectly with the Multiverse course. Enhancing my data skills helped me to move my career ahead."

For the team at WGSN, this is only the beginning. As the organisation continues to focus their efforts on driving innovation, reducing time per task and increasing revenue through the power of professional apprenticeships, greater efficiencies are sure to follow.

The goal

For employers aiming to encourage talent back to the workforce, or transition employees into new roles, upskilling and reskilling initiatives offer a vital solution.

We explore how Citi, the global bank, is opening new pathways for individuals to return to work, start a career, or change roles within the financial services industry – while supercharging their development through the power of data skills.

About Citi’s Reactivate Your Career Programme

Designed for those returning to work after a career break lasting more than two years, Citi’s program offers job opportunities across a wide range of roles, including operations and technology.

Participants benefit from a tailored professional development package and complete a qualification to enhance their skillsets. Since 2020, Citi has partnered with Multiverse to provide data skills training to participants.

"We believe it’s vital to have a workforce that reflects a diverse range of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. Through the Reactivate Your Career program, we’re committed to helping people return to careers they love or carve out a new path in the dynamic financial services industry."

Transformative opportunities with data upskilling

Whether they’ve taken time out for family or personal obligations, or simply to reassess their career path, the program is helping a wide range of individuals navigate their way into different roles in financial services.

At the same time they receive further training in high-demand data skills, helping them to transform data into insights and make informed business decisions.

Srilakshmi’s story

Srilakshmi joined Citi’s program in a project management role and completed a data qualification with Multiverse. She found the benefits went far beyond finding her footing back in the professional world.

"When I had my second child, I decided to take a break to prioritise my family. After three years, it felt like it was the right time to get back to work. What stood out to me about [Reactivate Your Career] is that it's not only about getting back to work, it's also about upskilling. Not only am I back at work, I'm also learning something new through the data program. The best part about the apprenticeship is taking those concepts and applying them to your work"

Driving business impact with data literacy

Participants are leveraging their new skills to drive change in teams across Citi, making strides by streamlining processes, enhancing efficiencies, and crafting data visualisations.

100% of line managers said participants had created business impact for Citi using their new data skills.

"Apprenticeships are an important tool we leverage to develop future leaders and build critical skills for Citi. In our ongoing partnership with Multiverse, we’ve created career-accelerating opportunities for workers at all stages. We’ve seen first-hand how empowering our colleagues with data skills delivers impactful results and tangible advantages across the business."

Saloni’s story

Having completed a Multiverse data literacy apprenticeship during the program, Saloni now uses her enhanced Tableau skills to create time-saving algorithms, automating monthly processes that used to be manually done.

"The skills taught on this course have backed up the incredible on-the-job training and work I’ve done in my role at Citi."

The result? She’s achieved an impressive efficiency boost of 80% when working with data and has been praised by her internal stakeholders.

“Through the Multiverse course, Saloni has also acquired a very good understanding of handling data which positions her to lead related projects within our stream,” said her line manager.

Empower your teams with the skills of the future

Find out more about opportunities at Citi at jobs.citi.com

The goal

Box is the leading Content Cloud provider, offering a single platform that empowers organisations to manage the entire content lifecycle, work securely from anywhere, and integrate across best-of-breed apps.

Talent attraction and retention became an increasingly important focus area, as Box looked to grow their talent internally. To build a strong early talent pipeline, Box turned to professional apprenticeships.

The solution

Multiverse's software engineering apprenticeship supported Box's hiring plans by offering a unique way to attract young people with a demonstrated interest in software engineering and building a career in tech.

Box apprentices started with a software engineering boot camp, where they practiced critical project management skills, master tech skills, and receive coaching in JavaScript, SQL, and HTML.

Through the Multiverse program, Box apprentices are driving valuable impact to their engineering department and leveraging their communities at Box and Multiverse.

"Through partnering with Multiverse we have been able to take the necessary steps needed to drive a purposeful hiring plan and develop the talent needed for the future of our organization, alongside offering an amazing opportunity for apprentices to gain valuable skills and have access to development opportunities."

The results

Productivity gains

Box has seen an increase in productivity gains due to new skills gained and applied by apprentices.

In one case, a Box apprentice was able to temporarily take on manager level responsibilities which allowed their manager to redistribute 40 hours of their time to focus on larger strategic Box initiatives.

Long-term career growth

Box is providing apprentices with key skills and development opportunities to support long-term growth and success, with 100% of apprentices on programme feeling supported.

"The apprenticeship provided a deep dive into the skills and requirements needed in the software engineering industry. It’s given me an opportunity to resolve critical issues that affect customers using the cloud based application."

The goal

Operating across 8 countries, modern outsourcer Capita has a mission: to help public and private sector organisations create efficiencies and build better customer experiences.

AI sits at the heart of Capita’s “Unlocking Value Together” strategy, as the business strives to harness emerging technologies to develop efficient, ethical and impactful AI solutions for clients.

With a vision to enhance its AI capability, improve its offering in the market, and equip teams with future-facing skills, Capita set out on an ambitious workforce upskilling strategy, in partnership with Multiverse.

"We are committed to delivering high-quality customer experiences, driven by passionate and high-skilled employees, and we’re confident that our AI Academy partnership with Multiverse will allow us to elevate both. Every business is looking to step ahead of the AI curve, but ensuring a business does so ethically and responsibly requires people-centred initiatives and knowledge, which we believe will be delivered and deployed with our new apprentices."

"We know the skills needed to succeed in the workplace are undergoing a huge transformation, and we want to work in tandem with our people to ensure they're equipped to thrive in this new world. Enabling access to world-class training in AI is just one of the ways we ensure our teams have the skills and capabilities not only to thrive in their role, but to drive forward their careers."

The solution

Capita first partnered with Multiverse to launch its AI Academy in September 2024. 86 Capita colleagues enrolled on the AI for Business Value apprenticeship programme, where they’re learning how to identify potential business value gains and run ethical AI projects. The Level 4 programme is funded through the Apprenticeship Levy.

"Of all of the [AI training] providers that we have worked with, or we went through a procurement exercise with, Multiverse was able to demonstrate the link to the actual business benefit. Multiverse took the time to understand the transformation and change journey that Capita is on, and build something that was appropriate and meaningful to our employees."

As part of the programme, learners pinpoint and develop use cases to deploy AI internally, or within a customer’s organisation. Sharing these “proofs of concept” is also a key priority within Capita, with learners encouraged to share their ideas and insights with peers and leaders through a regular series of Fireside Chats.

"AI for Business Value is allowing us to equip colleagues with the skills to understand how AI works, what the possibilities are, and how it can improve processes internally and for our clients."

The results

Enhancing efficiency by reducing manual processes

Through the Academy, Capita employees are gaining the skills to embrace the power of AI, and leverage it effectively to reduce manual processes and repetitive tasks – freeing up teams to focus more time on creative, strategic and problem-solving work.

"The biggest value for me has been cross-team collaboration. I’m working with people across Capita I wouldn’t usually speak to, and seeing how they approach AI challenges has been eye-opening. I’ve run several service desks, and AI has huge potential to reduce ticket volume. Even automating just 5-10% of queries makes a massive impact on efficiency."

Harrison’s story

Harrison set out to uncover efficiencies for Capita’s Architecture and Analysis team, which is regularly required to deliver multiple projects simultaneously, to tight deadlines and high standards.

He investigated how AI could modernise manual processes and enhance productivity, by using machine learning to optimise the allocation of resources and employee skillsets to specific projects, based on their requirements.

Harrison’s work has helped Capita to identify opportunities to increase efficiency in project task management, and boost capacity by more effectively deploying existing team resources.

"AI has become a daily part of my workflow. Whether it’s automating tasks or improving efficiency, it’s saving me hours each week. At first, I wasn’t sure how much I would really learn. Then I finished my first project and realised how much I’d grown. That was the moment everything clicked for me."

Using AI to improve customer experience

Learners are also developing solutions to enhance project delivery and create a faster, more impactful customer experience.

John’s story

John Julier, a Portfolio Director at Capita, explored how AI could be applied to improve Capita’s Project and Programme Management (PMM) processes.

Using data analysis and stakeholder management skills, John identified an opportunity to accelerate the early stages of client projects and quickly drive progress through start-up and mobilisation phases, by using AI to combine multiple data inputs, create key documentation, and implement a conceptual chat tool.

The potential productivity gains would result in increased delivery speed and performance for customers.

Boosting employee engagement and confidence with AI

As Capita employees continue to embed their new skills in their day-to-day roles, they’re creating impact, gaining confidence, and transforming their mindset towards AI.

"I initially expected the programme to be all about AI tools, but I’ve realised the real value is in business analysis and problem-solving. AI is just one piece of the puzzle. The support from Multiverse has been brilliant. The structured learning, the coaches, and the chance to apply everything in real-world projects have made a huge difference."

Feedback for the programme within Capita has been overwhelmingly positive, with an “Excellent” Net Promoter Score of 63, based on a survey of 64 learners in the first cohort.

"What the Multiverse programme has done is demonstrate the advantages of AI. Learners sharing their stories and successes has been fantastic – it’s bringing more people to the table and making them want to be part of the journey. We’re now seeing the knock-on effects, where we’ve got people breaking down the door to be part of the next cohorts – it's exactly the success we wanted."

The goal

Cheshire West and Chester Council relies on a huge range of data to manage and underpin service delivery and has hundreds of employees working with data every single day.

In partnership with Multiverse, the council ran a skills assessment to identify if there were areas in which the use of data could be improved through training.

"Using data effectively is essential in local government for enabling us to deliver the best possible services to residents: it helps us understand where the challenges and the opportunities across our diverse range of services are. But harnessing data requires skills and the right organisational culture."

The solution

That skills scan found that, while many employees were analysing data, less than 10% were engaging in predictive analysis. It offered a huge opportunity for the council to make the most of the data they had to better predict service demand, deliver an enhanced service to residents, and inform budget planning.

"We know that data skills are in short supply across the economy, that’s why training our in-house colleagues is so important as they are the people who understand our services. Being able to identify where those data skills will make the biggest impact is a great first step."

The results

Now, having enrolled more than 70 colleagues from a range of services onto data apprenticeships, new data skills are unlocking valuable insights about the needs of residents and communities, enabling the council to deliver focused digital and transformation programs.

Services are benefiting from a saving in staff time on data management tasks and the Council is seeing wider impact from the creation of the new, Council-wide Data Hive network, supported from the central data science and engineering hub.