Graduate Experiential Learning

What did our client want to achieve?

Our client a blue-chip telecommunications company wanted a programme at the end of year 1 of their 2 year graduate scheme, which provided an opportunity for the graduates to consolidate their development relating to social skills, team working, project management skills, self-leadership, leadership of others, presentation skills, communication skills and stressed the importance of always keeping your customer in mind.

Our client wanted the experience to be memorable for the graduates and to stretch them possibly out of their comfort zones and to provide them with very specific feedback so their self-awareness levels were raised. The programme was also challenged to address any self-leadership or work ethic attitudes, which may hold the graduates back. This experience was intended to provide them with a great foundation of key skills they would need in business, with practical tools they could use in different situations once back at work.

What did our client achieve?

• 100% of the graduates commented on the high quality specific feedback they were able to obtain from the facilitators.
• 89% of the delegates strongly disagreed with the following statement at the end of the programme as opposed to 77% pre the programme. "Soliciting customer perspectives is always flawed and therefore is next to useless."
• 97% of the delegates strongly agreed with the following statement at the end of the programme as opposed to 80% pre the programme. "I believe it is critical to start with the end in mind when you start a new project."
• Delegates commented that they had gained new insights into the following subjects which they would not forget due to the memorable nature of the programme: team working, leadership skills, how to take a strategic viewpoint, preparing project briefs, questioning skills which can be used when being delegated work, how their own behaviours impact other team members and the importance of celebrating success with each other.
• A positive public image for the client due to the quality of work the graduates completed on behalf of the host organisation - The National Trust.
• A highly motivated graduate cohort who felt invested in and felt they had gained greater exposure within their organization due to the final presentation being attended by senior management from the client organisation

So, how did we achieve this?

Strategis worked with their partners at the National Trust to design a development programme around a real project, which could take place over 4 days.

The project was called "Seeing is Believing" and involved the graduates exploring practical solutions which would help enable the National Trust drive a culture change programme returning to their roots and their mission to increase access to the community at large to beautiful places. The fact that the project was real and senior members of the National Trust as well as the client attended the final presentation added to the delegates' adrenalin and hence accelerated their learning curve. It was critical that the right balance between input sessions and work was achieved and the delegates were given a lot of autonomy to decide when they wanted facilitated sessions and when they wanted us simply to observe and give them feedback.

It is this approach with the support of the National Trust, which helped us deliver on our concept of "reality learning"