Case study
Industry
Data and Technology
Company HQ
United Kingdom
Number of Employees
70+
Office Locations
2 countries
Calybre Delivers Learning and Creates Expertise Across its Team
Udemy driving business outcomes
Case study details
Calybre is a leading data technology consultancy that’s known for its expert, unbiased advice and services across the entire data domain. Its team’s extensive industry knowledge and experience guarantee clients expert guidance and support in their data journeys.
Always looking to stay ahead of the technology curve, the company has invested in L&D from day one, implementing Udemy Business as its primary learning platform. Calybre’s employees now have access to thousands of courses on crucial topics, such as data analytics, data engineering, machine learning, and generative AI.
A need for consistent development and comprehensive learning
As a data analytics and AI consultancy at the forefront of technology, Calybre has always emphasized strong L&D. The company has scaled quickly based on market demands and continuously invests in learning to provide the best possible services to its customers.
Ryan Jamieson, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder at Calybre, started building the company’s learning and development program from a clean slate; he wanted to make it comprehensive and scalable from the beginning. “Our workforce is fully remote and we invest a lot in new talent entering the market — it’s often people coming straight from tertiary education,” says Ryan. “We want to enhance their existing capabilities and set them up with all the skills required by the market.”
A key driving force behind Calybre’s L&D program is consistency. With teams based throughout the UK and South Africa — all with a wide range of skills and experience — Ryan wanted to ensure everyone has access to the same high-quality learning resources and opportunities to up- and cross-skill.
“When we started looking for a learning platform, we wanted to build consistency of training at scale,” explains Ryan. “After assessing the platforms on the market, we saw an opportunity to do that with Udemy Business.”
Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder
An entire workforce connected through Udemy Business
Calybre now uses Udemy Business as its primary L&D platform. It plays a key role in helping Calybre ensure its teams are certified on core technologies, have the foundational skills required to serve clients, and have the soft skills needed to deliver exceptional service.
“Udemy Business’ course catalog really made it stand out in the market. With so many courses available, we can cast our net wide and choose exactly what we need,” says Ryan. “We can even add our own learning content to the platform that covers topics directly related to our business, so our learners have everything they need in one place.”
Dedicated Learning Paths to cover every essential skill
One of the features that encouraged Calybre to choose Udemy Business was Learning Paths; pre-built paths that contain top Udemy Business courses. Now, Calybre uses Learning Paths throughout its employees’ development journeys, from the moment they join through every step in their career progression.
“We used Udemy Business’ Learning Paths to create a foundational set of courses that everyone completes in their first four months at Calybre — 100% of this time is spent on learning,” explains Ryan. “This helps us ensure everyone has the key skills they need for their roles across topics crucial to our business, including data security, data engineering, analytics, and machine learning.”
Having a pre-built onboarding route for all new employees helps Calybre create consistency in skills across both its locations, and it’ll play a crucial role as the company expands. And to strengthen the onboarding even more, Calybre also combines Udemy Business with opportunities to learn on the job.
“Four months is a lot of time dedicated to learning, so we blend in practical learning opportunities,” explains Ryan. “These include the chance to work on capstone projects, case studies, and soft skills.”
Meeting market needs with Udemy’s courses
Calybre is known for its technical expertise, and Udemy Business now helps the company’s teams develop and maintain their knowledge as the market evolves.
“All our consultants need to be certified in technologies like Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Microsoft Azure, Databricks, and Snowflake,” says Ryan. “Udemy Business’ vast course catalog helps employees prepare for their certifications and continuously learn about these technologies.”
Part of Ryan’s role involves assessing the market, choosing the areas where Calybre needs to invest its learning time, and finding the relevant courses on Udemy Business to share with the wider team. But with such a strong uptake of Udemy, many of Calybre’s employees look for these learning opportunities themselves.
“Many learners will actively seek courses on new topics in Udemy Business. For instance, as GenAI started emerging, we saw people exploring courses on its fundamentals,” says Ryan. “We also use Udemy Business to respond to client demands — if they have a need not covered by our capabilities, we can invest time into developing the skills to service them.”
Thousands of learner hours with a huge adoption rate
As Calybre’s employees progress through their careers, the company continues to dedicate some of their work time to learning.
“We balance a percentage of our employees’ time between learning and billable work, which we adjust as they grow in their careers,” explains Ryan. “This isn’t just for our technical consultants either. Every team from sales to operations uses Udemy Business to build their skills and understand more about the technology they’re delivering to clients.”
Thanks to this dedicated learning time, Calybre has seen an average of 300 learning hours per person in its two years of using Udemy Business, with around 256 hours per month across its teams. Overall, that equates to more than 10,000 hours yearly — a huge amount for an employee base of around 70 people.
“Udemy Business is a resource that’s made compulsory at the start of every employee’s time with us, so it’s meant that uptake has been really positive. We currently have an adoption rate of 93%,” says Ryan. “Our employees say they love the platform, and it gives them confidence they’re progressing in their careers.”
Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder
On-demand learning to support new market expansion
After two successful years using Udemy Business, Calybre is now exploring how it can use the platform to support its expansion into new markets.
As Ryan explains: “We’re deepening our focus on data engineering and machine learning, as well as expanding our workforce into new countries, so Udemy Business is going to play a key role.”
Ryan also has some advice for businesses looking to follow a similar path and implement a new learning strategy. “When you’re looking at a platform like Udemy Business, you need to think about how it’ll complement your overall strategy,” says Ryan. “Be deliberate in where you focus your learning. For us, that means ensuring everybody is confident in topics core to our offerings, such as data analytics and engineering — and Udemy helps us achieve that.”
Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder
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