Jaguar Land Rover dumps Brexit woes with 5,000 new jobs
19 Jun 2017
British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover has announced plans to create 5,000 new jobs, including 1,000 engineers, workers and other staff as the company pushes ahead with expanded use of autonomous and electric car technology.
Jaguar Land Rover, now a Tata Group company, said it would hire 1,000 electronics and software engineers and 4,000 workers across other sectors, including manufacturing.
Most of the jobs will be based in the UK and the recruitment is expected to be completed in the next 12 months.
The move will see JLR, the country's biggest automotive business, increase its domestic workforce by nearly 15 per cent to 42,000.
The recruitment drive has been triggered by a shortage in electronic and software engineers, especially at a time when the company is racing to keep up with the global trend of self-driving and battery-driven vehicle production.
While the company has announced plans to build its first electric vehicle, the I-PACE, in Austria, it has indicated that it would need government support to make such models in the UK.
Jaguar Land Rover has indicated half of all new models will be available in an electric version by the end of the decade, necessitating new skills among its staff.
"As the automotive industry transforms over the next decade, fuelled by software innovation, we have to attract the best talent and that requires a radical rethink of how we recruit. Here we've found an engaging way to recruit a diverse talent pool in software systems, cyber systems, app development and graphics performance. It will be the first of its kind," Alex Heslop, JLR's head of electrical engineering, said.
He said there is a lack of engineers in the UK and it is likely that JLR will recruit overseas and relocate successful candidates to Britain.
The entry of technology companies like Apple and Google into the self-driving and battery-driven automobile sector, automobile companies are forced to reinvent themselves to survive in the market.
JLR fully knows that companies that first develop successful systems are likely to dominate the market.
JLR's first revealed its all-electric car, the Jaguar I-Pace, last year.
To find the right candidates the car maker has revealed it is launching an innovative partnership with the band Gorrilaz.
Although it is not known where the jobs would be based it is highly likely many will be at Jaguar Land Rover's growing operations at Whitley, Gaydon or even Ryton-on-Dunsmore.
In September 2016, Jaguar Land Rover set up a new multi-million pound Classic Works operation in Ryton and its chief executive Ralf Speth had outlined his vision of Coventry being at the heart of the firm's growth plans as a 'smart' motor city, helping the UK to lead the world in autonomous, connected and electric vehicles.
Since then the firm has started further expansion at Whitley and most recently opened its huge Classic Works operation at Ryton, the largest facility of its kind in the world.
