RS Components has launched Data Academy to teach its employees vital data visualisation skills, arming them with valuable knowledge for the current and future state of this rapidly-evolving industry.

Some 80 people are now part of the programme, funded largely through the Apprenticeship Levy, which allows large businesses to upskill existing employees or recruit and train. Current skills being taught to RS employees include Python coding, visualisation and storytelling, and data ethics.

“The world is going through a data revolution, and we know that to remain competitive it is critical to harness our ever-expanding data in innovative ways. We felt our data was hugely under-exploited, but by transforming the ways we utilise it we can make what’s impossible today, possible tomorrow,” said Simon Gibson, Learning & Development for RS EMEA. “By democratising data, we can make better, more informed decision-making across the business and facilitate better communication, which makes perfect commercial sense.”