Following the life-shaping experience of university, many graduates find beginning their first job daunting. Effective graduate training can help to ease doubts.
From new environments to alien management systems, graduate training programmes can support both the new employees in learning the ropes and also allow the existing teams and management to get to know the new recruits. By constructing a programme that optimises the way in which younger employees learn, they will engage with their new roles easily.
Building core skills
Although many graduates leave university with a wealth of knowledge gained from work placements and their three-year stint in lectures, seminars and absorbing a bounty of information, they often lack ‘core skills.’
In the past few years, hiring managers have noted a decline in the number of graduates entering the workforce with the ability to tackle problem-solving, work effectively within a team, establish an understanding of business and customer awareness, apply numeracy and literacy skills to their role, all while behaving with a positive attitude.
Through measuring and building any missing core skills during a graduate training programme, managers can ensure that their workforce is equipped with the essential skills required to succeed and support the business. Training should not cease once a course has been completed, with management reinforcing the teachings through further on-the-job learning and continuous development.
Communication
Hiring managers have expressed concern over recent batches of graduates entering the workforce, who are lacking in communication skills. These essential skills are required to build relationships and progress their career, alongside supporting company goals. The communications skills gap also involves a large portion of graduates unable or uncomfortable with public speaking and many lacking in writing proficiency skills. Graduate training programmes can be utilised at the beginning of a career to ensure that new hires can progress and become a valued asset to their business.
Where entering a workforce, or any industry, communication is considered basic skills which should be mastered prior to dealing with stakeholders as a representative of the company and even internally where information needs to be transferred effectively and clearly. Through graduate training programmes, a business can establish its expectancy of their recent hires. These initial training sessions should also incorporate skills gap analysis to ensure that those who currently are not at the expected level of communication, can set goals and means of achieving them, throughout their first initial period in the company.
Remove outdated processes
In early 2017, Intern Tech commissioned research of 2,000 UK adults, to identify how the system is potentially failing students and businesses. With a high number of universities falling beyond the expectancy of their students through failure to update course content and incorporate modern practices and technology into their curriculum.
With over 6 million graduates in the UK, considering their degree courses as 'outdated' in line with the present job-market, businesses now more than ever will need to provide more succinct graduate training programmes to optimise their workforce.
The survey further revealed that over a third of UK university graduates have had to pay for further qualifications to align their skill sets and knowledge with those required by their industry. For companies to appear overall more attractive and empower their workforce, they must implement graduate training programmes that equip valuable skills to their graduates.
How do graduate training programmes support assimilation?
Through increasing the knowledge that your newly hired recruits have, they will likely exert an overall increased confidence in their role. They will likely need less support from fellow team members which will allow a more productive workforce to flourish, teamed with the building blocks for future skills, propelling them forward in their career. Moreover, if line managers do not need to start from scratch, with skills training, when a new graduate is recruited, their overall workload and productivity will also be less affected, allowing the business to run as usual.
Finally, graduate training programmes start everyone off on the same footing. It allows the entry-level workforce to possess the same skills and ensure they are not discouraged by others who have alternative skill sets. Building basic core skills will also support to close the skills gap created by Brexit and allow for businesses to experience less of a ripple effect, caused by the referendum.