"A learning company is one that provides its people with career-long learning and development opportunities"

Why has Thales identified upskilling as a strategic priority against today’s backdrop of rapid technological change and shifting market demands?

Clément de Villepin/ Reskilling and upskilling are key priorities in today’s society. An estimated 50% of the skills people possess now will be obsolete by 2030, and over 1 billion jobs will be unrecognisable a decade from now as new technologies come to the fore. 

As a technology leader, we employ 33,000 specialist engineers and around 8,000 people join our teams every year.

What does becoming a “learning company” mean for Thales?

Clément de Villepin/ A learning company is above all one that makes talent management the cornerstone of its human resources development strategy.

It’s also one where the majority of upskilling happens between colleagues – neuroscientists have found that people often learn most effectively from peers and inhouse experts. 

And a learning company is one that provides its people with career-long learning and development opportunities.

What practical steps has Thales taken towards becoming a learning company?

Clément de Villepin/ We’ve adopted a three-pronged strategy. 

First, the skills management system originally developed by our engineering teams is now being expanded to encompass all Thales employees. The system includes a Group-wide competency framework that shows every staff member where they stand in relation to the skills needed for their role, allowing them to pursue personalised training. 

Second, every entity and functional area is responsible for developing its own in-house “academy”. We currently have around 30 of these academies across the Group. 

And third, we place a special emphasis on on-the-job learning, with training delivered by in-house tutors, coaches and mentors.

The in-house academies are a key component of training provision within the Group. What goals do they serve?

Clément de Villepin/ Our academies are the cornerstone of our upskilling and reskilling efforts. They have four responsibilities:

1. To update the relevant section of the competency framework each year to reflect recent technological developments and changes to job roles;
2. To develop learning materials and programmes that align with entity needs;
3. To recruit and train inhouse trainers, tutors and coaches;
4. To organise and deliver training sessions and programmes. The role of academy manager is becoming increasingly important for the Group.

How do you track and measure skills development?

Clément de Villepin/ Tracking how many hours of training employees complete tells us whether we’re devoting enough resources to skills development. 

But we also use a skills maturity index to determine whether this training is having the intended effect – in other words, how our employees’ skills measure up against the competencies needed to meet our customers’ requirements.