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Rolls-Royce and global talent development partner Hemsley Fraser have claimed the best in manufacturing award at the 2026 Learning Excellence Awards.
The two companies received the industry accolade for their delivery of the ‘Pandorus’ learning and development (L&D) programme, created to fast-track the growth of technical, leadership and coaching skills for technical specialists in Rolls-Royce’ Submarines business.
Devised by Rolls-Royce Department Heads, technical leaders and Hemsley’s L&D specialists, the programme is instrumental in developing technical expertise in a holistic way, while meeting rising demand for complex nuclear engineering solutions.
Early business value
The Pandorus programme has already met the company’s early objectives of increasing its pool of technical specialists as well as kick-starting training for up to 200 engineers over time. It has also accelerated promotions for participants, delivered greater business value in customer project work and increased the business’s capacity to take on new work.
Rolls-Royce wanted to fast-track engineers’ skills and leadership capabilities while aligning them with its leadership and operating principles for technical specialists. The solution was a programme that focusses learners in gaining hands-on development, problem-solving and technical leadership while developing their skills in influencing colleagues across boundaries and mentoring and coaching junior engineers.
Creative approach
Pandorus adopted a highly creative learning pedagogy, avoiding the usual reliance on internal expertise for training in technical environments and instead prioritising real-world challenges, to help prepare participants for future specialist roles, fill capability gaps, and unlock career growth.
Course modules deliberately give learners new perspectives from industry and academia. This included the opportunity for learners to see best practices or hear ideas from guest speakers that they wouldn’t normally have access to in their day to day roles, together with live project experiences, backed by insights from Rolls-Royce’s technical specialists.
Pandorus programme’s learning modules blend interactive learning and practical exercises to embed skills, in-person sessions to maintain learners’ high engagement levels, with follow-up reinforcement of learnings. To complete a rounded learning experience, Rolls-Royce’s dynamic, experience-led learning hub features Hemsley’s cutting-edge learning content and programme insights.
Robust feedback and improvement
Programme participants are paired with senior technical specialists for regular feedback and growth assessment, while the programme’s ongoing evaluation includes structured ratings and open-ended responses from learners to capture real-time qualitative insights.
Chris Palmer, Head of Engineering Capability at Rolls-Royce said:
“The Learning Excellence Award is a fantastic recognition of the PANDORUS programme to prepare experienced engineers to take up Specialist leadership positions. The programme blended taught modules, led by internal practitioners and external experts, with structured mentoring and collaborative Learning Groups to cement the learners' existing knowledge and experience and build their confidence for promotion to more demanding roles.
"The results have been incredible, and we’re thrilled to have received the award in recognition of the programme's success.”
Learning data shows that participants better understand key operating principles and remarkably engaged: eNPS (Net Promoter Scores) from surveys have increased from 85+ before the programme to 95+ afterwards, when 50+ is generally considered outstanding.
Naomi Buxton at Hemsley Fraser commented: “Instead of relying solely on internal expertise, Rolls-Royce’s programme raised the bar by blending best practices from across industry and academia that participants wouldn’t normally encounter, with deep insights from experienced Rolls-Royce specialists. The end result is a well-rounded and very practical learning experience and we're delighted that the programme has been recognised with this accolade.”
