600 Data & AI specialists trained by Mercedes-Benz in 2023

“Professions are disappearing and employees are being redeployed. We also have needs for emerging functions,” stressed an EDF HR executive in April to translate the evolution of professions in the industry.

Mercedes-Benz brings a new testimony of this. Each professional profile in the company evolves, recalls the German. Two explanations for this: digitization and the increasing use of powerful artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

Mercedes-Benz is ramping up

The car manufacturer has set up a training program to support this internal transformation of skills: Turn2Learn. The initiative has a budget of 2 billion euros until 2030.

And in this context, Mercedes trains Data and AI specialists in particular. Through the D.SHIFT and Data Worker pilot programs, the industry announces that it is training more than 600 employees from production and administration in these areas.

“The first graduates will receive their certificate in the coming days. Due to the strong interest of employees in this area, Mercedes-Benz is in the process of expanding these programs,” the manufacturer further indicates.

Train rather than recruit

French industrialists are not left behind in this sector, as illustrated in particular by EDF. The Eramet mining group of course trains its experts, but also supports the skills development of other business profiles.

Training courses for engineers, geologists or metallurgists have been created. However, these courses are complex to deploy since they are part of the long term. To access the qualification of Data Analyst or Data Scientist requires 9 months at the rate of one day per week.

Data & Software Academy at Stellantis

“The most complex thing was to allocate the necessary time for training. And this is not due to the profile of the employees, but to the ability of the management to effectively allow them to carry out the training,” confided a few months earlier an Eramet executive.

In the automotive industry, like Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis has structured its training approach through the creation in 2022 of a Data & Software Academy. This entity aims to train skills to support the digital transformation of the industrial and the development of Data skills in its various professions.

“For many of us, we start with awareness (awareness) or PowerBI. It is necessary to move forward step by step […] Last year, we trained 600 data citizens. We are aiming for 1,000 in 2023. On upskilling and reskilling, the target is 100 to 150,” said Anne Fenninger, the head of the Academy.