Jo Kowalik
Digital and Technology Solutions Specialist degree apprentice, The Co-operative Group
Transforming careers and promoting diversity through degree apprenticeships
Meet Jo Kowalik, a Digital and Technology Solutions Specialist (Masters) apprentice at the Co-op. In their spare time, Jo co-organises Her+Data networking events in the North West, a community for women and nonbinary people who work with and are passionate about data.
Jo shared with us how their apprenticeship journey helped them transition careers, from languages to data analysis, and provided insights into the importance of diversity in the workplace.
Passion for data
I took an unusual route into data. My first degree was in languages, and following on from that I worked in digital marketing for a few years. However, I was always more interested in the data analytics side of the role rather than the marketing itself. So, I decided on a career change, and I went back to University part-time and completed a Maths degree alongside my full-time work.
Once I’d completed that degree, I was able to move into digital analytics, and then I was successful in securing an in-house data analytics role at the Co-op. That was great, because at Co-op there are lots of opportunities for career development. I started to look at my next steps, and the talent team suggested I look at apprenticeships.
At first, I wasn’t sure. My impression of apprenticeships was that they were for entry-level jobs, or for people looking to change career. But then I found the Digital and Technology Solutions Specialist (Masters) programme at Manchester Met, and it was perfect.
It gave me the best of both worlds for my career aspirations – to expand my data analytic skills, but also study digital transformation and change management and build my leadership skills.
It was all very exciting, and I could see myself really enjoying the course.
Learning from others
My cohort is a mix of recent graduates and people like me, who have years of industry experience. We are from different industries, in different roles, and some companies are public sector, some private, some apprentices work in large companies, some at SMEs.
This diversity makes the group discussions that we have in class so rich, because everyone is bringing different experiences and different levels of knowledge about a topic.
Some apprentices might really understand the theory behind a certain management concept, but they don’t have practical experience of implementing it, whereas another apprentice might have experience of implementation but never knew about the underpinning theory before.
Those multi-perspective discussions have been one of the best aspects of the course for me, because they’ve been so interesting, and I’ve learned so much from my peers.
Career progression
The apprenticeship has created some amazing opportunities for me. Because the course content is so well aligned with my day job, it creates the opportunity for me to ask to be involved in projects that link to my assignments.
And less than 12 months in, I’ve already seen the benefit of that in my successful secondment to a Data Business Analyst role. I’ve been able to use the experience and the knowledge I’ve gained through apprenticeship to expand and improve my career prospects.
Creating an inclusive culture
I’m really passionate about inclusion in the data industry. When I started out working in tech, it didn’t always feel like a safe place for me, and still, when I go to meetings sometimes, I feel very much in the minority. So, one very important thing that I do is I am part of the department’s Diversity and Inclusion working group, working with colleagues to find ways to embed an inclusive culture across our department.
Our work involves looking at things like intersectionality, inclusive hiring practices, and at the language that we use across our data tools – for example, it is still common to refer to “master” and “slave” copy, which is a hangover from colonialist language.
It’s things like that, ensuring that we’re bringing our language and our understanding of diversity into the twenty-first century to make this a welcoming place to work for all our colleagues.
I also co-organise the Her+ Data Manchester meetups, which are networking events for women and non-binary people in data. It’s so important to provide our attendees a space to gain confidence in public speaking, network, and develop their own skills.