Working here
Learning for work, learning for life.
We make it easy for our colleagues to get curated learning that sets them up for the future they want. From bitesize on demand courses, to events and professional qualifications.
Choose learning by skill, theme, or business area. Go deeper into the skills you have already, or build brand new ones. Work through the heaps of in-house content, or use the links to outside sources to go further.
Data is everyone’s job, and our dedicated Data Academy helps to make that happen.
Data Academy has courses for novices who want to get their head round key concepts, and experienced pros who want to specialise further. Learn by gaming, or study for a nano degree. You can dip in when you want to, or follow a curriculum designed to make you a better data engineer, analyst, or scientist. And everything in between.
Mo Chen, Data & Analytics Analyst: Learning and development have always been a big part of my life. I’m a big believer in continuous self-improvement. The world of data is changing fast. So if you don’t keep up with the industry trends, techniques, updates, you’re very likely to get left behind.
Mo Chen: I used to have an end goal with learning and development, which is something I certainly do not have anymore. That’s one of the things I really enjoy about working with data. It’s a never ending learning journey.
Mo Chen: Given the wealth of knowledge courses and learning material on Data Academy, I’ll focus on two things that help me a lot personally. Data camp and Udacity.
Mo Chen: I used data camp to refresh and learn new technical skills. It’s interactive. It’s got bite size sessions. It’s got coding exercises and challenges all built into the data camp sandbox environment. So you don’t have to install anything. You can literally do entire courses just within your browser.
Mo Chen: Now, in terms of Udacity, they offer nano degrees in various data subjects. If you don’t know what an nano degree is, it’s essentially just a short, intense course that will take you a couple of months to complete, during which you’ll learn hands on, applicable, technical skills.
Mo Chen: I finished the data engineering nano degree, which was by far the most challenging technical learning I’ve completed and learned all about data wrangling, data modelling, automating data pipelines, data lakes and warehouses with a specific focus on cloud data engineering.
Mo Chen: Using data academy accelerated the rate at which I was able to learn technical skills and concepts, as by selecting the right courses and nano degrees, I was able to follow a learning structure that was well-defined with all the support materials and tools that I needed.
Mo Chen: I think one of the hardest things about learning something new in data is choice overload. We have so many options nowadays, so many videos, courses, platforms that it’s very difficult to pick the best resource, the most bang for buck learning.
Mo Chen: This is where choosing the right path course, nano degree or professional qualification within data academy can help a lot, as all you have to do is follow the curriculum.
From formal to informal, we have lots of ways for you to take your career where you want to go.
We provide guides and tools to help, your colleagues provide the wisdom to help you meet your goals. Everybody wins.
Set your own learning goals, and work to them with the support of your manager.
Take a few hours a week to support another part of the business, grow your skills, and make connections.
Want a complete career change? Learn a brand new skillset from the ground up, full time, with professional tutoring.
Learn a brand new skillset from scratch
Our Reskilling programme gives colleagues who apply the chance to learn a completely new set of skills, learning how to do key jobs like software or data engineer. It’s a full time, complete learning opportunity which can give careers a brand new start.
Reskilling includes classroom training, as well as on the job learning over a period of months, to teach the fundamentals of jobs which are crucial in the knowledge economy.
Molly Bayet, Software Engineer: Hi, my name is Molly, and I’m a Trainee Software Engineer on the Reskilling programme.
Chris Tucker, Data Engineer: Hi, my name is Chris Tucker, and I’m a Data Engineer from Data Science and Innovation.
Text: Our reskilling programme lets our people learn a completely new skillset
Molly: When I first found out about the Reskilling programme, I thought what an amazing opportunity that NatWest was giving.
Chris: It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do is learn how to code, but I didn’t know where to start. I’ve always associated it with going back to uni and reskilling, and getting a degree to be able to become a Data Engineer.
Molly: The learning has been fully remote, working from home, learning as part of a group, as well as some independent learning.
Chris: So you’ll have access to a wealth of content, that basically you can go through and choose what you want to learn. I think it shows that the bank’s really invested in championing potential of people in our business, to actually invest time to be able to reskill into a completely new area, is something I can’t think of another example of another business doing that.
Molly: I’ve met so many new people across different areas of the bank, I’ve learned so many new skills that I never thought I would, I would definitely recommend the Reskilling programme.
Molly: I think one of the hardest things about learning something new in data is choice overload. We have so many options nowadays, so many videos, courses, platforms that it’s very difficult to pick the best resource, the most bang for buck learning.
Molly: This is where choosing the right path course, nano degree or professional qualification within data academy can help a lot, as all you have to do is follow the curriculum.
Low commitment, low pressure, high impact
How do you learn about a new business area, improve your skills, and make connections with new colleagues, without the commitment of something like a secondment? The answer is gigs.
Spend up to five hours a week for up to three months using your current skills to do something different, learning brand new skills, or even volunteering. Gigs are flexible, easy to fit in alongside your job, and full of potential.
Ram Mohata, Data Engineer: Hello, my name is Ram Mohata, and I work in the Commercial Banking Operations.
Sushil Kumar, Financial Control Process Manager: Hi, my name is Sushil, and I am part of Finance.
Romi Sharma Sachar, Delivery Manager: Hi, myself Romi Sharma Sachar.
Text: We spoke to some colleagues about their gig experience...
Sushil: I got the opportunity to experiment and co-facilitate the sessions with the experienced facilitator. And then after I got an opportunity to, to conduct these sessions independently.
Romi: This gig is definitely an ideal launchpad for me to nurture my facilitation skills. and also provides me an opportunity to connect with people who are experts in this field.
Ram: It’s not just about upskilling yourself or learning something new. We get engrossed in our day to day activity so much that we stop learning. The gig platform definitely gives us an opportunity to break the monotony, and do something very different, very new.
Romi: I really enjoyed each day of this gig as it was filled with knowledge, exposure, fulfillment. It definitely helped me to evolve my skills and live my passion.
Sushil: I would 110% recommend people participate into these gigs and take the best out of it. Because these gigs are some special opportunities for you to explore your potential, actually, which is still unexplored.
We’re committed to nurturing a fair and inclusive environment where we all feel we belong. By working together to achieve great things with our colleagues, communities, and customers, we can celebrate and respect everyone’s strengths and differences.
As technology changes, business and jobs change with it. Which means we all need to keep learning. But finding the time can be a struggle.
So we give our colleagues three days a year to dedicate to learning for the future. To build the skills their job will need tomorrow, or to build the skills for the job they see themselves in tomorrow. Self directed, when they want it.
