DLD Solutions - Delivering Learning and Development Solutions - Ian Woodward

Graduate Development Schemes

Our clients invest significant resources into developing their graduates. Graduates are often the future leaders of our clients’ businesses and so their progression is vital to a company’s success.

Graduate Engineers Development Programme

Our client, the UK’s largest distributor of electricity, had been running objective-based programmes for Graduate Engineers for a number of years. As part of its aim to provide the business with highly competent engineers, who have been exposed to a broad range of company activities, the Company wished to redevelop its Graduate Engineer Development Scheme. Ian analysed the current materials and discovered that, although the current scheme had been fine-tuned on several occasions, the changes had been incremental rather than fundamental.

Ian worked with graduates who were already on the scheme and with key specialists to review the programme from a fresh perspective and then to redevelop it. Disparate materials from three separate companies, which had come together to form the present organisation, were brought together in a concise, clear, corporate format. The scheme is now much simpler and is far easier to use and to maintain.

It contains three parts:

An illustrated booklet, which explains how the scheme works and how it links with the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Competence and Commitment Standards. Attaining these standards enables graduates to apply for Chartered Membership of the Institution.
A Training Objectives workbook, which lists all the activities that graduates need to complete and then be assessed against.
A spreadsheet, which uses a traffic light system and which enables graduates to gain an instant view of their overall progress on the scheme.

The materials are now completely focused on driving the business forwards through providing a stream of highly capable graduate engineers.

“The materials have helped provide a clear pathway for our Engineering Graduates
and will greatly support their continued development.”

"I was so pleased with the end results that I knew exactly who to contact
when it came to revitalising our technical apprenticeship programme."
Head of Training and Development

Business Graduate Training Programme

Our client, one of the largest rental companies in the world, wanted to introduce a Graduate Training Programme which would help to develop its future business leaders. The programme needed to be:

Pragmatic - practical and easy to use
Stretching - so that trainees would have to work hard to meet the requirements of the scheme
Business focused - so that it encouraged strategic thinking and enabled trainees to make a positive and practical contribution to the business.

Following discussions with the company’s senior managers and research throughout the business, Ian devised a modular approach which enabled graduates to spend set periods in different parts of the business whilst achieving specific objectives.

The graduates are expected to take responsibility for their own development. However, they are kept on track through:

Informal weekly reviews with their Sponsor Managers (Trainers)
Formal quarterly reviews with Senior Line Managers
Informal coaching sessions with Mentors (specially selected managers) who act as their guardians throughout the scheme.

Graduates are also expected to attend specific training workshops with their peers and to carry out a number of business-related projects which are having a positive impact on the business.

Since designing the original scheme, Ian has also produced a shorter version of the programme for graduates who already hold responsible positions within the company.

“The scheme gives our graduate trainees a structured way of learning about all parts of our business.
This experience, along with the supporting exercises and business projects,
will help us to develop our future business leaders.”
Director of HR

Commercial Graduate Development Scheme

Our client had been recruiting Commercial Graduates for several years and placing them in various parts of the business to gain a broad level of experience. However, there was no structure to this experience and the graduates weren’t sure what they really needed to learn. We worked with the graduates and with subject matter experts to identify the key training objectives, which need to be obtained to ensure that the graduate acquire the desired level of experience.

The scheme uses a mixture of internal and external training courses, allied with specified planned experience. This structured approach enables graduates and those who support them, to monitor progress and to validate that the learning remains ‘on track’ throughout the scheme.

Since the scheme’s launch, we have continued to work with senior managers and with members of the training team to ensure that the programme remains relevant and up-to-date.

"We have appreciated the quality, speed and accuracy of Ian’s work and invariably the results have exceeded our expectations, always improving on whatever we had in place before!"
Head of Training and Development

Commercial Graduate Development Scheme