Graduate development methodology
In the past ten years we’ve had some fantastic opportunities to work with clients on their graduate programmes. As a result we’ve gained considerable insight into the type of support graduates need as they make the transition from university to work. Our approach has evolved to balance the challenges facing graduate development and our clients’ need to accelerate the pace at which they contribute to the business.
Key challenges
Learning
New graduates need to make the transition from academic learning to learning at work. Throughout school and university, graduates learn in a way that is fundamentally different to how successful people develop and learn in the workplace – through experience.
Self-sufficiency
University doesn’t adequately prepare graduates for the level of self-sufficiency they need at work. Often graduates expect HR staff to provide them with unrealistic levels of support and structure. Many organisations complain of graduates’ inability to show initiative and handle ambiguity.
Interpersonal skills
Graduates need to develop their self-awareness and ability to influence others to operate effectively at work. Intellectual ability, whilst important is not sufficient: academic intelligence needs to be balanced with emotional intelligence.
Client objectives
The objectives that clients identify are surprisingly consistent.
They want programmes that:
- help recruit quality graduates
- accelerate the pace at which new graduates contribute to the business
- help graduates to take responsibility for their own development and learning
- give graduates a critical awareness of the business
- instil what it takes to work in teams to achieve results
- develop interpersonal skills
- provide an opportunity to learn about project management.
Our approach
The principles we apply in response to these challenges and our clients’ objectives are:
Relevance
We work closely with our clients to identify the key skills and behaviours that the programmes must cover. If organisations have competency frameworks we use these to form the basis for our design.
Learning from experience
To help graduates adapt to a new way of learning, we make our programmes experiential. We work with clients to understand their business and use this knowledge to identify the activities and experiences that achieve key learning objectives.
Challenge
Our programmes are challenging and demand a high level of engagement from the graduates. We design complex and multi-faceted exercises with high stakes. This appeals to their intelligence, wins their commitment, and meets our clients’ needs for a high profile programme that will attract high quality graduates.
Team-working
To develop team-working skills we often get graduates to complete tasks in teams. Through working together to meet challenging objectives, they begin to experience what working in teams is really about.
Realism
Effective graduate development relies on programmes accurately reflecting what graduates experience in work. We use inventive methods to convey key messages and what they need to learn. This can involve business simulation, use of actors, community projects, mystery shopping and interviewing line management.
Integration
We work best in partnership with our clients to both design and deliver programmes. Without engagement from the business, the programme sits in isolation and the graduates can’t easily put into practice what they learn.
Outcomes
Our clients tell us that as a result of our programmes, graduates:
- contribute more quickly to the organisation
- take real responsibility for their learning and development
- increase their knowledge of the business
- improve their team working skills
- Our clients use our programmes to help present a professional and high value image when recruiting, and say they increase retention rates of graduates.
Read some examples of graduate work we have done.
View our AGR masterclass presentation.
