Case studies

Four teams of apprentices, one day and 50,000+ data records — it must be a live data analytics hackathon, one of the most hotly anticipated features of our apprenticeships’ curriculums.

These challenges see learners take everything they’ve learned and put it to work in teams on a single, open-ended problem. They’re given a realistic scenario, real and relevant data and a question to answer. They then have just a day to clean the data, analyse it and present recommendations that they can defend.

We recently observed a hackathon in action for a cohort of data analytics apprentices from five colleges at Cambridge University.

Here’s how it unfolded.

A real question, real data

The teams were given a broad question to tackle on the day: which under-represented groups are being lost at which stage of the admissions process, and where should outreach be focused to close those gaps?

The dataset was exactly the kind that analysts meet in the real world: large and inconsistent. The team would have their work cut out wrangling a mix of different fields related to socioeconomic indicators and widening higher education participation flags, plus the stage applicants reached and the outcome they received.

Tackling this challenge would require them to flex all the data analytics skills they’d learned to date, using Excel and PowerBI to clean and visualise the data, communicate the trends they’d found and make some concrete recommendations.

Turning messy into meaning

The hackathon compressed the full analytics workflow into a single day. The teams started by cleaning the data, building structured tables, suppressing blanks, fixing inconsistent values and making judgment calls on which incomplete records to exclude. (Nobody ever said data quality was glamorous, but this is where the trust in everything that happens downstream is won or lost.)

Clean data in hand, teams moved to modelling and preparation. Using XLOOKUP they joined datasets on unique identifiers, summarised the data with pivot tables and built out their funnel and conversion-rate calculations.

The teams then used PowerBI to analyse and visualise the data interactively, and built Excel charts and dashboards to compare groups and surface patterns.

The final stage was to turn their analysis into insight and storytelling, and present their findings. By framing a clear problem statement and benchmarking against national data, each team had arrived at a strong set of evidence-led outreach recommendations.

And the process was complete: raw, messy data — the kind universities and indeed businesses — are swimming in, had been transformed into a board-ready proposal.

Fresh eyes, fresh connections

Part of what made the day work was the fact that many participants were analysing admissions information for the first time. Pushing people to test their skills outside of their day-to-day role helps to cement their learning, and gives them valuable experience to bring back to their regular jobs.

“It’s been challenging,” said Elizabeth McWilliams, a participant. “We were given admissions data, and I don’t work in the admissions department, so it’s been quite a steep learning curve.”

For Robert Fone, Senior Instructor at Multiverse, that fresh perspective was the point. “We’ve got people who’ve never seen this sort of data before, so they’re bringing new ideas that people who work with admissions data haven’t thought about,” he said.

The hackathon judges, senior stakeholders overseeing this aspect of the University’s apprenticeship programme, also reflected on the success of the day.

“They all came at it from very different angles,” said Fiona Hall, Deputy Head of Admissions & Data Services, and a hackathon judge. “It was interesting to see what they put together and that's obviously skills that they can bring back to their own workplaces, work efficiently and work smarter with the data that they've got.”

“This is absolutely silo busting activity,” added Owen Roberson, University Data Lead and a judge. “This is about getting people to make connections that are unintuitive.”

The skills that stick

The real success measure of a hackathon is always what participants take back to their desks afterwards.

For this cohort, that is a repeatable way of taking a messy dataset — any dataset — and turning it into something that decision-makers can act on.

Whatever data they come across next, these apprentices are ready to make it work for them.

Across the NHS, the shift to a more digital, AI-enabled future is the defining challenge of the decade. Meeting it depends less on the technology itself than on the people who use it — and especially on whether they have the skills to turn data into better decisions and better care.

Barts Health NHS Trust set out to build those skills from within. Its data and digital apprenticeships, delivered in partnership with Multiverse, are designed to do exactly that. And now the Trust is celebrating the graduation of its first cohort: more than 150 clinical and operational staff now have the practical data skills they need to tackle the frontline problems they know best. (With a massive 71% achieving Distinction so far.)

Building data skills from the inside out

The apprenticeships were designed to build critical skills across Barts Health and the hospitals in its Trust. Its core aims were to:

• Improve data skills in ways that benefit patient outcomes, directly or indirectly 
• Empower people to make data-driven decisions, break down data silos and identify cost savings
• Reduce time spent on manual processes and duplicated work
• Invest in employees to unlock future talent and retain high performers

“We want to make sure everyone has the right skills they need, and an apprenticeship is a great way to do that,” said Kieran Kelly, MD, Education Academy.

The early results bear this out. Learners in all departments are seeing impact through greater efficiency, with some quoting a 40-50% reduction in administrative workload — that means more time for patients.

Solving the problems they know best

On graduation day, a doctor who completed the programme described adding coding to his skillset, with transformative results for the daily running of his ward.

“As a doctor, coding is not part of my skillset, so I certainly needed a lot of support,” said Dr Konstantinos Dimitriade, a paediatric intensive care consultant. “The nursing day book is a literal book — we can only write and edit it so many times before it becomes completely illegible. So we created a small application to automate it and flag which upcoming shifts might run into problems, so we can mitigate staffing issues. That lets nurses spend more time with patients, where they want to be.”

The apprenticeship helped another learner, working in patient safety, tackle a seemingly intractable problem: how do you measure something as complex as safety culture?

“In my work, I realised data skills were absolutely essential, so I took the opportunity to become a Level 3 Data Analyst,” said Dr Annie Hunningher, Consultant Anaesthetist. “Safety is notoriously difficult to measure. I pulled together three years of data and built trends from it. Now we can use the dashboard to problem-sense — an area where safety culture is poor will flag, and we can prevent harmful incidents before they happen. It saves time and saves harm, by showing us exactly where to put resources and support. It’s a genuinely new way of understanding safety within our organisation and beyond.”

For other learners, the change has been one of mindset as much as method.

“When we think about data, we picture something we have to sit down and spend a lot of time analysing. But this course taught me that putting a bit more time in at the start to set up reports means I can work smarter,” said Vivian Wong, Service Lead Pharmacist. “Part of my job is managing a very busy chemotherapy unit, and the tool I’m building will help us manage the rising number of patients we’re seeing — and ultimately, improve our chemotherapy wait times.”

Skills that last a career

These stories show the Trust’s wider ambition in action: building data skills that make a real difference to patient outcomes, directly or indirectly. The lasting change the apprenticeships have unlocked is creating value that reaches far beyond any single project.

“The feeling of success I’ve had when I’ve worked something out that a year ago I wouldn’t have understood has been absolutely amazing,” said Dr Hunningher. 

Vivian added: “The skills I’ve learned will be lifelong. They’ll change my approach and how I work for the rest of my career.”

Barts Health set out to build its own data and digital future. Its first graduating cohort shows what becomes possible when an organisation backs its people to grow. And for these graduates, it’s just the beginning.

QS helps universities and business schools worldwide identify, shape and deliver data-driven strategies that secure their futures in a rapidly changing sector. But the company’s leadership knows that sustaining its competitive edge depends on something more than data. It depends on people.

Ben Sowter, Senior Vice President for the Sector Intelligence Division, puts it plainly. “This is a people business,” he said. “Your team is only as good as its collective capabilities and the relevance of those capabilities. AI makes it possible for a small group of people to catch up and potentially overtake a large, historically successful organisation like us. So it’s vital that we disrupt ourselves before somebody else does — by upskilling our people to keep them on the crest of that wave of change.”

A broad base of skills — and the people to match

QS has drawn on programmes from across the Multiverse portfolio to embed data and AI confidence at every level of the organisation. Dr Hannah Gore, Head of People (EMEA, US & Global Contractors), has seen the impact first-hand.

“Diversifying our apprenticeship portfolio – and ensuring a diversity of people on the programmes – has made a massive impact,” she said. “Apprentices aren’t building skills for the end of the course, they’re applying them from the very first workshop. Learners are drawn from across marketing, product, data, analytics and project management, all of which now engage with data and AI in new and unique ways. And nearly 60% of our apprentices identify as female, which is hugely significant in a STEM field where they’ve been historically underrepresented.”

“Thanks to all this diversity we’re seeing the benefits ripple out across QS, with people sharing knowledge, driving efficiencies and acting as natural ambassadors. Line managers are now queuing up to ask us: can I get more of my team on the programme?”

The results have captured the attention of senior leadership. Every apprentice who has completed the programme to date has achieved either a distinction (80%) or a merit (20%), and the business has realised over £675,000 in cost savings through improvements in data input, processing and automation.

“The ELT have fully embraced the programme — they can see the savings, the streamlining, the new ideas coming forward,” added Dr Hannah. “We’re seeing these benefits build year on year, and in fact apprentices’ applications of AI are already shaping how we think about future workflows.”

Learner impact stories

BeiBei Xiong, Product Manager

BeiBei joined the AI for Business Value programme to stay ahead of a rapidly changing skills landscape, and to ensure she could shape AI’s impact on her role, not the other way around.

“I thought, it’s better to be someone who knows how to use AI than someone whose job is at risk from it,” she said. “The most impactful skill I’ve gained is using AI to create product mockups. Work that used to take weeks — sometimes months — I can now do in real time with stakeholders in the room. It’s ten times faster than before.”

Serena Ricci, Senior Growth Marketing Manager

Using her project time on the Data Insights for Business Decisions (DIBD) (L3) programme, Serena transformed QS’s prospect engagement strategy — and earned a promotion in the process.

“I uncovered a huge proportion of our database that was unengaged,” she said. “The skills I’d gained let me escalate this to leadership in a structured way and bring together cross-functional teams to agree on a new lead acquisition and engagement strategy. The resulting behavioural marketing approach moved us from a 30% engagement rate to 80% year on year, with a tenfold forecasted impact on revenue.”

“The analytical and strategic thinking skills I developed made me a stronger asset to QS. My scope expanded well beyond traditional marketing responsibilities, and it soon became clear that I needed a promotion to reflect this.”

Mustafa Mitashar, Institutional Support Specialist

Mustafa’s role already involved working extensively with data, but the DIBD L3 programme gave him the tools to automate processes he’d long taken for granted.

“With Multiverse, I could apply what I was learning immediately — trial and error happening in real time,” he said. “I’d grown comfortable with the tools I was using, and I wanted to challenge myself. The automation skills I learned cut the time it takes me to gather data for our rankings work by more than a week, which enabled us to expand our rankings and increase the number of institutions covered by 40%.”

Skills as competitive advantage

As the higher education sector faces an era of closures, mergers and consolidation, QS’s ability to help institutions navigate uncertainty has never been more important. Ben Sowter believes the capabilities being built with Multiverse are central to that mission.

“We have, I would argue, the strongest competitive intelligence set anywhere in the world,” he said. “But our reputation with universities is based less on the quality of our data and more on the capability and impact of our people. The skills we’re building with Multiverse are ensuring we extract maximum value from the market intelligence data we hold.”

Ben also believes that by investing in upskilling QS has become more sophisticated in its thinking around data and AI. He said: “That’s visible in how our AI strategy has rallied around shared tools that let different teams collaborate and transfer knowledge more effectively, while staying curious about what’s coming next. This further strengthens our position as the best in our field.”

A partnership built on shared goals

The success of QS’s apprenticeship programmes is rooted in a close working relationship with Multiverse — one defined by shared metrics, regular contact and a deep understanding of QS’s business objectives.

Dr Hannah Gore: “We’re always in close contact with the Multiverse team, tracking metrics, reviewing feedback and making sure the programmes are as successful as possible,” she said. “The sessions they run with apprentices and their line managers give everyone clarity on what’s involved and how the learning fits around work. And because apprentices can apply what they learn straight away, they find the time investment becomes increasingly manageable with every workshop.”

 That success of the partnership has not gone unnoticed outside of QS. The company has been shortlisted for a Best Employer award at the Apprenticeship Guide Awards, and Dr Hannah Gore has been shortlisted for the Leadership in Apprenticeships accolade.

“The awards are a brilliant opportunity to showcase what our apprentices have achieved, and they cement our belief that we’re delivering world-class professional development here at QS with Multiverse,” she said.

Providing education and employability

Buckinghamshire New University (BNU)’s mantra is: ‘Where education meets employability.’

To achieve this, the university highlights that its role as an educator and an employer must go hand-in-hand.

“Learning should be hard, everything else that sits around the university should be easy. But university systems are notoriously complex and bureaucratic. So, it’s about breaking that down. That’s why we measure ourselves not against other universities, but companies that do it really well.” – Damien Page, Vice Chancellor

The university has set three goals across its students, research and talent.

• Students: Enhance student experience and drive growth, while retaining its 84% student satisfaction score. 
• Research: Unlock new revenue streams and institutional capabilities by developing the data proficiency required to expand the university’s research output. 
• Staff: Promote employee satisfaction, increase talent and foster digital inclusion by upskilling staff to thrive.

All three goals require a certain level of digital literacy for employees to deliver. So, building on the university’s partnership with Multiverse and the launch of its Data and AI Academy, BNU is expanding its upskilling activities to enable scalable growth, create high-quality experiences and strengthen data ownership.

“If we want to increase student outcomes, we have to increase the development of our colleagues.” – Damien Page, Vice Chancellor

In partnership with Multiverse, BNU has launched a range of data and AI courses for employees across marketing, student recruitment, academic registry, and digital and technical services. 

Improving student experience starts with data quality and digital literacy

With students now accustomed to seamless, consumer-grade experiences – from the likes of Amazon to banking apps – the university is looking to brands and companies as its competition for digital services, not other universities. 

Delivering on this ambition means enabling personalised, reliable and frictionless student journeys that meet consumer-level expectations. For example, identifying opportunities to improve timetable distribution for new students.

Yet, the university’s ability to report – from statutory reporting, to Nexus Student Management and enabling its ‘Digital Campus Vision’ – is challenged by its access to quality data. And the problem is two-fold, with limited data literacy skills across the organisation impacting the full lifecycle of data, from input to extraction and insights. 

In partnership with Multiverse, BNU is training staff on advanced data skills to reduce its reliance on manual reporting – such as spreadsheets – but so it can improve the student application experience and drive growth.

“Upskilling staff at our university is really important for our vision of a digital campus. Because we want to create a digital environment that’s accessible, inclusive and empowering. Staff and students can only take advantage of benefits if they have the right skills to operate inside of it.” – Nicholas Roussel-Milner, CIO

Learner impact

Case Study: Revolutionising NHS Compliance Reporting

The Challenge

A critical NHS compliance report at BNU required ten hours of manual Excel work per cycle. The process was labor-intensive and carried a high risk of human error due to manual data entry and fragmented datasets.

The Solution

Following training with Multiverse, Nicoleta Buzea, Returns Support Officer, initially automated the workflow in Power BI, cutting reporting time by over 50%.

Building on this success, Nicoleta has since scaled the solution into a reusable Power BI template. Key technical enhancements include:

• Automated Data Transformation: Leveraging Power Query to handle data preparation and postcode logic, eliminating the final manual steps of the pre-upload process.
• Advanced Analytics: Developing complex DAX measures to provide instant insights into key demographics (ethnicity, disability, age, and gender).
• Enhanced Data Integration: Merging employer and placement data to provide a richer, more holistic view of the student landscape.

The Impact

The refined dashboard now functions as a scalable, "refresh-ready" tool. By automating the most granular steps of the workflow, Nicoleta has ensured that each reporting cycle is consistent, accurate, and actionable, drastically reducing manual intervention while empowering stakeholders with dynamic trend analysis.

“Nicoleta’s work… is already bringing benefits… which has already seen added efficiency in terms of the time taken to compile and assure the core data.” – Jeremy Dye, Head of Statutory Returns at BNU

Empowering employees with a BNU-owned digital, data & AI model

To enable its Digital Campus, the university needs to leverage technologies such as AI. 

"Data is the blood of the organisation... it needs to be managed like an asset." – Nicholas Roussel-Milner, CIO

The university has set out to improve its ability to forecast demand and optimise recruitment and conversion and scale operations, without incurring costs. Together with Multiverse, BNU is working to improve control over institutional data and student experience.

“We want to make university as easy to access and as easy to get through as possible, while making sure the learning stays hard.” – Damien Page, Vice Chancellor

“I found working with the coaches to be a really positive experience. They really support you, challenge you. They’re empathetic and they provide useful feedback in the progress reviews.” – David Woolley, International Admissions Manager

Hear David’s story in the video at the top of this page.

Multiverse learning in action

Measuring learner impact is a critical part of any upskilling initiative. But, for BNU, demonstrating the delivery of tangible benefits is paramount to measuring itself against companies – not other universities.

That means giving employees the skills to apply on-the-job and instantaneously alongside their learning. By enabling those being trained to find relevant ways to apply their learning, this also creates tangible impact early on as employees progress through their courses.

“Using apprenticeships for growth and development is such a great opportunity, not only because you get a qualification – you get external support and the social learning aspect is really good – but also you apply your learning almost in the moment. You learn something in a workshop, and then you are literally doing it in your day job. The practical application is almost instant.” – Rachel Hemingway, People Development Partner

Want to find out how data and digital literacy skills could help your organisation? Chat to an expert.

The goal: Nurture future leaders

Now more than ever, employers need cost effective, alternative solutions for attracting and retaining talent from a diverse range of backgrounds.

With the size of the talent pool shrinking and the demand for digital skills rising, leadership at Hargreaves Lansdown decided to invest in developing talent needed for the future of the organisation.

The solution: Build relevant, in-demand skills

With a clear vision and commitment to learning, Hargreaves Lansdown introduced the Software Engineering, Digital Business Accelerator, and Business Transformation Fellowship programmes.

"As part of our transformation, we recognise the increasing need to develop digital and data skills. We decided to explore apprenticeships as a route to address the growing need for new talent across the OMNI channel and attract a different demographic of colleague"

Apprentices enrolled in Multiverse programmes represent a variety of experience levels and backgrounds across multiple departments, including Operations Support, Payments, and Product Development.

Each programme focuses on different skill sets, ranging from change management and advancing digital initiatives, to full-stack engineering to improve customer experience platforms.

"I feel I have a sense of belonging at Hargreaves Lansdown with the relationships I’ve built between my peers and other teams. Its let me grow in confidence, but also given me the opportunity to train new members in my team, which I didn’t even think I’d be able to do when I started."

The result: Application of core skills across the business

Apprenticeships have already yielded major results for Hargreaves Lansdown, creating a stronger culture of learning and development, and demonstrating the impact of applied learning.

"This apprenticeship has allowed me to explore the different paths available and find something I truly love and feel excited about. Thanks to the dedicated support from Multiverse and Hargreaves Lansdown, I can see the positive changes that I’m bringing to the workplace every single day."

Apprentices at Hargreaves Lansdown are supported by the daily application of newly acquired skills, in addition to personalised support from expert coaches, peer networking events and more.

"The Business Transformation Fellowship has been helpful to me at this stage of my career, after transitioning into a Transformation role. I’ve picked up specific skills from data modelling to managing conflicting requirements that are directly applicable to my day-to-day role. The engagement with my coach has been fantastic. It’s really powerful to get an external view and to have my thinking challenged."

All enrolled apprentices say they feel supported in their apprenticeship, and that Hargreaves Lansdown is an inclusive place to work. 100% of apprentices also say they receive support from their line manager in their day-to-day role.

The goal

Jaguar Land Rover had three main objectives for their upskilling efforts:

• Equipping employees with the knowledge and skills needed to identify opportunities to reduce costs and increase revenue.
• Building a data-driven culture that knows how to apply and leverage data in various scenarios – with the ultimate goal of increasing productivity and efficiency across the business.
• Increasing employee satisfaction and engagement by investing in skills development.

The solution

Jaguar Land Rover launched the Multiverse Data Fellowship programme to equip employees with the skills needed to become experts in data analysis, modelling and machine learning.

There are currently 600 Jaguar Land Rover employees on a Multiverse Data Fellowship programme across every department in the organisation, including Manufacturing, Product Engineering, Finance, Transformation, Supply Chain and many more.

"The Multiverse data programme has transformed our company's ability to harness the power of data, enabling us to make better decisions, innovate faster, and stay ahead of the competition. Our workforce is now equipped with the skills and knowledge to unlock valuable insights and drive real-world impact across our entire organisation. Multiverse has been an essential partner on this journey, and we look forward to continuing to work together to realise the full potential of our data-driven future."

The results

Identifying opportunities to increase efficiency

After six months on the programme, Data Fellowship apprentice Kamil Poreda was able to identify production inefficiencies by creating a Tableau dashboard for Production Leads. These insights into the efficiency of the manufacturing lines have resulted in the production of 600 extra cars per week.

Increased productivity and efficiencies

Another apprentice, Huijie Ma, utilised Tableau to create dashboards reporting on the electrical diverts from manufacturing. This solution helped save Huijie and her team four hours a day, which equates to 85 hours saved per month.

The reports revealed the root causes of the divert, allowing ownership to be traced back to the specific functions, production lines and work groups, which created an opportunity for an efficient process of divert reduction.

Increased employee satisfaction

The Data Fellowship programme has also supported driving employee engagement - an incredible 100% of apprentices agree the apprenticeship aligns with their professional and personal goals.

"The apprenticeship has given me so much confidence. I am now far more structured in how I approach my work, taking the time to scope out projects with relevant stakeholders to understand their needs fully."

The goal

The Crown Estate has launched a new digital training programme to upskill employees across the organisation in AI in a drive to boost its digital capabilities.

The AI for Business Value programme apprenticeship aims to equip team members from business functions across the organisation with advanced, industry-relevant AI and machine learning capabilities.

Delivered by Multiverse over a 13-month period, the AI for Business Value programme trains apprentices to identify business value gains that can be achieved through using AI and executing ethical AI projects.

"AI represents an enormous opportunity for us, that will increase our ability to effectively serve the country and give a huge boost to our efficiency and capability to achieve net zero and grow our productivity. This training will unlock our team’s ability to define the role AI will play in our organisational journey. Just as importantly, it gives our people access to some of the most in-demand skills in the workplace today."

The training is part of The Crown Estate’s ambition to better utilise AI to drive value for the nation. A significant national landowner, The Crown Estate delivers financial value to the Treasury and creates wider environmental, social and economic value for England, Wales and Northern Ireland through its diverse £16bn portfolio that includes urban centres and development opportunities; one of the largest rural holdings in the country; and Windsor Great Park. It also manages the seabed and much of the coastline around the same parts of the UK, playing a major role in the country’s world leading offshore wind sector.

AI upskilling at The Crown Estate

Participants on the AI for Business Value programme will be embedded across the organisation, delivering AI innovation and utilising real-time data in areas ranging from administration and property management through to urban design and marine planning.

The programme will enable teams to identify new opportunities to improve operational and design efficiencies, reduce emissions and carry out optimum planning, among other strategic outcomes, supporting The Crown Estate’s objectives on net-zero, economic growth and productivity and stewarding the UK’s natural environment and biodiversity.

With businesses predicting that almost half (44%) of workers’ core skills will be disrupted by 2027, with AI widely reported to be a key disrupter, the training will also enhance the careers of apprentices who are enrolled, empowering them with the most in-demand skills in the economy today, and allowing them to act as champions for AI within the organisation.

"At The Crown Estate, our AI strategy is geared towards developing the skills, mindsets and behaviours to use AI effectively within our organisation. This apprenticeship is a key marker on that journey, and I really look forward to seeing some of the plans and impacts participants make on this programme over the next 13 months."

According to the World Economic Forum’s latest Future of Jobs report, almost two-thirds of companies globally predict AI will grow in importance, with AI and big data the number one priority for company training strategies with more than 50,000 employees.

It’s becoming ever more critical for employers to heed the advent of AI, both to harness the numerous benefits it can yield for their business and to prepare their people for the future of work.

"The Crown Estate has recognised the potential of AI to upscale innovation and increase efficiencies across its portfolio. The skills development provided is empowering the Crown Estate team members to use emerging technology to achieve their aims; while also enriching their career opportunities."

The goal

Across the Leeds health and social care system, data skills are considered a vital tool for joining up decision-making and improving patient care.

In partnership with Multiverse, Leeds Health and Care Academy (LHCA) led a unique collaboration between health and care partners — including Inspire North, Leeds County Council, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Leeds Student Medical Practice and many more — to improve data skills within the sector.

LHCA provides a collaborative approach to transformative shared learning across all health and social care organisations in Leeds. In addition to building bespoke development programmes, LHCA works to embed organisational change by advancing digital, data, and technology capabilities across the workforce.

"LHCA have recognised that data is the key to joining up care and citizen services and ultimately powering digital transformation. As Integrated Care Boards prioritise digitisation, Multiverse is the perfect partner, offering the skills solution through digital apprenticeships. Through our partnership, LHCA is leading the way with upskilling and reskilling programmes to address the shortage of digital and data skills."

The solution

In partnership with Multiverse, apprentices on the Data Fellowship programme are equipped with the skills to interpret data and action insights, to drive value within their organisation.

"Through delivering the Data Fellowship apprenticeship in partnership with Multiverse we have improved and embedded data skills across a breadth of health and care organisations in Leeds, including those who previously didn’t have access to a data learning programme.  We’ve also established just how valuable learning collaboratively is — I’ve seen how working together has built apprentices’ networks, understanding of the wider system and given them confidence to tackle real-life data challenges in our city."

The results

Improved efficiency and productivity

Apprentices have gained confidence and speed when approaching data tasks, with an average 17.5% increase in efficiency when handling data.

"I used to spend 2-3 days a week manually checking through things in Excel. Now I do it in 1 or 2 hours. Any piece of data work I do now involves things I’ve learned on the programme."

Enabling data-driven and joined up decision making

In one example during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Data Analyst used their new skills to link datasets and build an interactive, shareable map showing vaccine uptake across Leeds. This enabled colleagues across the city to identify areas of low vaccine uptake and prioritise outreach.

Increased collaboration

After being brought together through the apprenticeship programme, employees across Leeds have built strong working and personal relationships.

Through in person events, apprentices were given the opportunity to connect with senior leadership, alongside community events as a part of the Multiverse offering connecting them with the wider apprentice ecosystem.

The benefits were clear — 100% of apprentices said they felt a sense of belonging and support from the Multiverse community.

"It has enabled us to share ideas and knowledge and skills, which we do regularly. I feel we have all helped each other improve, and we can troubleshoot between us. Not only have I made friends within my own organisation, I have made friends with people in other Leeds health and care organisations."

The goal

North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) provides mental health and wellbeing support to local communities across Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey, and Islington. Services include children and young people’s mental health services, prison services, forensic services, eating disorders and drug and alcohol recovery.

In recent years, demand for mental health services has soared, resulting in acute financial and resource pressures for service providers – making it an essential priority for NLFT to leverage the benefits of data and technology, and equip staff with the skills to drive innovation and improve patient experience.

“Investment in data and analytics is one of our key priorities for the next five years - and one of the key themes of our digital strategy. There are huge pressures in terms of recruitment and retention, and there is a national agenda around improving productivity and efficiency. Supporting our staff to interpret data will directly help deliver improvements to patient care.”

Through their Digital Strategy, NLFT is striving to drive impact across five key themes:

• Delivering excellent digital services: providing high-quality, secure and reliable digital services, allowing staff to deliver the best possible care.
• Becoming a data-driven organisation: leveraging clinical and business intelligence to improve health outcomes and decision-making at every level.
• Building smart infrastructure: exploring cloud-hosted solutions, hybrid server architectures, and smart building designs that enable agile, secure, and efficient care delivery.
• Exploiting AI technologies: to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and deliver better outcomes for service users.
• Fostering a culture of innovation: building a digitally literate workforce capable of utilising cutting-edge technology to improve care and empower service users.

The solution

About the NLFT Digital Academy

In 2023, NLFT launched their Digital and Data Academy, delivered in partnership with Multiverse and funded through the Apprenticeship Levy, helping them to build new skillsets in data, AI, and transformation.

Learners from every division of the Trust span a range of clinical and operational functions – from Support Officers, Service Managers, Analysts, to Clinicians and Nurses.

"Strengthening and developing digital literacy and leadership across our organisation is crucial for fostering a culture that promotes innovation and meaningful changes in patient care. This focus is a key aspect of our digital strategy and serves as the foundation for our collaboration with the Multiverse Digital Academy. We are committed to building a community and sharing best practices in digital innovation and learning within mental health supporting our teams in applying their newly acquired skills to improve patient care long after they complete their learning."

Staff are strongly encouraged to share their new knowledge across the Trust. Regular Data, Digital, and AI Academy Roundtables, chaired by NLFT Chief Nursing Information Officer Emily Burch, bring together learners and leaders to share learnings and success stories.

“The insights shared through initiatives such as our roundtables and the best practice playbooks we are developing not only enhance our practices at NLFT, but also aim to serve as valuable resources for other Trusts seeking to drive innovation. By investing in our people and championing digital excellence, we are creating a workforce that is prepared to meet the challenges of the future, ensuring our services remain efficient, effective, and centered on patient needs."

The results

Building a data-driven culture across NLFT

Teams across NLFT are seeing the benefit of new skills, driving impactful changes that enhance patient experience and operational efficiency. 100% of learners understand how the Academy contributes to the Trust’s strategy and supports their professional career goals.

“Multiverse has been an invaluable partner, and the Digital Academy has been transformational for our staff. It’s really opened their eyes to the power of data and how they’re using it, creating a huge impact for our services. We’re seeing staff becoming more confident – they’re proactively using data insights and asking important questions like “Have we thought about this? This is what we’re seeing in our service, is this true in other areas of the Trust?” It’s a real step change for us.”

“I’ve learned new skills that have enabled me to become a leader in driving impactful change that benefits both service users and colleagues. The benefits have been immense. I’ve been able to build significant confidence and see the team taking real ownership and pride over their data. I now have a voice that is heard and I look forward to seeing what my future career path holds.”

Creating time savings for clinicians

By reducing time spent on manual data entry, teams across NLFT are finding ways to increase time spent with patients.

Mitasha’s story

Using her skills gained through the Multiverse Business Transformation Fellowship, London Prisons Service Lead Mitasha analysed the current reporting in her department – and found that several team leads were spending 2-3 days per month fulfilling mandatory, time-intensive reporting requirements as part of the Care Programme Approach.

After conducting iterative testing, Mitasha implemented improvements to the reporting process that collectively saved team leads 45 hours per month. NLFT has been invited to share learnings nationally with other healthcare providers in Healthcare in Justice to roll out a similar process in their services.

Improving the patient experience

Ferenkeh’s story

Ferenkeh, a Consultant Social Worker, tackled a significant challenge facing Barnet Inpatient Mental Health Wards: a high number of patients who were clinically ready for discharge, but waiting for care assessments. Addressing delayed discharges is a priority for NLFT to improve patient experience.

Using his analytical skills gained through the Business Transformation Fellowship programme, Ferenkeh engaged with local authority service managers to pinpoint bottlenecks in the discharge process, particularly around communication and documentation. He proposed enhancements to the documentation forms to ensure they captured all necessary information and streamlining the process.

By employing data visualisation techniques using PowerBI, Ferenkeh effectively illustrated the issues and tracked progress, reducing the number of active patients awaiting assessments from 25 to one, within a nine month period.

To ensure the sustainability of these improvements, Ferenkeh recommended establishing a dedicated discharge team in Barnet, who will continue to own the process.

Unlocking actionable insights from data

As employees become more proficient in using data tools like PowerBI, they’re able to streamline processes that previously required manual support from data specialists.

Nikitha’s story

Nikitha is a Business Intelligence Analyst at NLFT. She spotted that the team was receiving a high rate of queries related to readmissions – and decided to take a deep dive into the data.

Leveraging new skills in hypothesis testing and predictive analysis gained through the Data Fellowship Programme, she explored the impacts of key demographics like gender, ethnicity, and length of stay on readmission rate. The results suggested that gender had a significant impact on readmission rates, and indicated that tactical interventions may be required to reduce readmissions of male patients.

Nikitha’s findings will be shared with the Population Health team, who will investigate further and understand root causes at borough level, to recommend interventions to employ.

The goal

Nationwide is the world’s biggest building society. With over 15 million customers, they have a relationship with almost a quarter of the UK’s population.

Being owned by its members (banking, savings and mortgage customers) means that Nationwide can do things differently to deliver their purpose: banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society.

Nationwide identified that building data capability would help speed up decision-making and reduce inefficiencies.

“As we continue to invest in enhancing our technology and processes at Nationwide, it’s equally essential we place the same level of investment in our people and their skills. Data and insights in particular is an important area. It allows us to use data to drive our decisions, automate the work we’re doing and ultimately drive greater efficiency into the organisation.”

To help, Multiverse first conducted a skills assessment of Nationwide employees in Payments and Project Management teams who use data daily, which revealed that on average, employees were spending 14.3 hours a week on data tasks.

Our analysis showed that with the right skills, 36% of this time could be spent more effectively, allowing teams to repurpose over half a day per week on more value-add activities.

An appetite to learn new skills was already there – the survey found that 95% of employees wanted to improve their data skills.

Working together, we established the goals a data upskilling programme could achieve:

• Delivering proactive, data-led insights: leading to better and faster decision-making.
• Improving efficiency and productivity: by removing blockers that lead to delays and projects.
• Developing an engaged, data-competent workforce: empowering Nationwide employees to become data-led and insight-led.

The solution

The Multiverse and Nationwide partnership kickstarted in March 2024, with 33 learners enrolled on data and digital upskilling apprenticeship programmes, funded by the Apprenticeship Levy.

“Our world is rapidly evolving, and job roles are adapting as new technology emerges. That's why it’s important for us as individuals and as a Society to prioritise skills development. By continuously learning, developing new skills, and pushing for better, we can deliver more value for our customers. Nationwide understands the importance of data literacy, where reporting and analysis can lead to better decision making and better outcomes for customers.”

The results

Proactive data-led insight

Armed with new data skills, Nationwide employees are now applying what they’ve learnt to their day-to-day roles, spotting opportunities to save time and create new efficiencies.

Following the programme launch, 75% of line managers agreed these new skills would deliver business impact.

“Four members of my team have enrolled in the Data Academy - watching them develop their skills, use them to create impact and confidently tackle new challenges has been an amazing journey, and I've been proud to support them every step of the way."

“Jeremy always pushes for better by reducing the time taken to produce reports through automation in Power BI. This puts the team in a very good position for getting a wide range of information very quickly and multiple Power BI reports are now being used daily.”

Driving business efficiency and removing bottlenecks

On average, learners already save around 1 hour a week, by applying their new skills in the workplace.

“By creating a dashboard that consolidates everything in one place, I saved each Product Owner approximately four hours a month, freeing them from time-consuming Jira queries.”

Increasing productivity by eliminating manual processes

Robert’s story

Responsible for creating Nationwide’s payments agenda, Robert faced inefficiencies in handling data, often needing several days to gather and analyse information.

After enrolling on the Multiverse Data and Insights for Business Decisions programme, Robert gained skills in Power BI and advanced Excel functionalities. These tools helped him independently gather, analyse, and report data, transforming his approach to work by removing manual processes and streamlining data collection and management.

The new process saved 16 hours, reducing work from several days to just a few hours. It improved data accuracy, by allowing finance and procurement teams to focus on validating findings, rather than initial data collection.

Create an engaged, data-led workforce

A survey of programme participants found that 100% agreed the apprenticeship would help them progress towards their professional goals.

"Apprenticeships are key to connecting education with real-world application. Having been through an apprenticeship myself, I can personally attest to the value they offer in putting skills to work right away. At Nationwide, we really emphasise this hands-on learning approach because it not only nurtures talent but also sparks innovation within our teams."