Future Skills

Graduate Programme Wales is constantly evolving to adapt to the needs of business and to give graduates the skills required to excel in their current and future roles.

Applied learning allows the graduates on both our Financial Services and Data Science Programmes to acquire knowledge and skills through academia, and real-world placements within the Employer Consortium.

Over the 2-year programme, graduates progressively become more commercially astute and confident, adding value to organisations during each of their eight-month placements, providing a unique opportunity to sample different careers paths. The excellent tripartite relationship between The Programme Team, Employer Consortium Members and USW (University of Wales), ensures graduates get the best knowledge, skills and experience required to be successful, from both their placements and applied academic study, with an impressive 98% of graduates securing permanent roles at the end of the 2-year Programme.

Whist the Programme delivers high-level learning and experience for all graduates, there is also need for graduates to understand the skills and competencies required to excel in today’s innovation driven economy and support employers implementing digital transformation & cultural change.

We are encouraging graduates to self-develop throughout this period by giving them access to Udemy, a global online training platform which offers courses from leading experts across a range of subject areas.

Since February 2020 graduates have completed over 200 hrs of training on Udemy, and this continues to be a popular platform for learning. Some of the courses completed have included – Agile Project Management, Scrum Master, MS Excel Advanced, Business Analysis Fundamentals, Python and Tableau.

These learnt skills are constantly evolving and graduates are continually having to keep up to date with skills to innovate and lead and ensure competitive advantage.

“I found Udemy very useful….it provides a range of different useful modules that can help you stand out in your different placements. I studied an Advanced Excel module, that I’ve already put into practice in work.” Esyllt lewis – Alumni Graduate Admiral

Crucially, there is now more demand for graduates and applicants to have competencies that will help them approach complex challenges. Critical Thinking, Resilience, Creativity, Emotional Intelligence and Managing Change are becoming more common place competencies being demanded by employers, particularly for high-skilled, technical roles.

A recent report from The World Economic Forum produced A guide to thriving in the post-COVID-19 workplace*

“The requirement that we engage fully in the virtual realm right now is pushing people in many areas of business to learn not only digital skills, but also to improve auxiliary skills such as collaboration, creative problem-solving and openness to new ideas. Managers and team leaders, for example, are having to learn how to motivate and engage teams from afar.”

The Programme graduates have regular discussions with the Programme Liaison Manager, Clare Allen who supports them with their ongoing challenges, managing expectations to help them develop resilience and emotional intelligence during the term of the Programme.

Throughout the Programme, evidence documented in Performance Development Plans (PDP’s) highlights the progressive improvement of graduate performance against key competencies. Clare Allen will be reviewing rotation 1 graduate PDP’s, completing a Training Needs Analysis to identify key development opportunities, and compliment the graduate learning experience with additional training to help them understand and further develop competencies that will help them stand out, giving them a well-rounded skill set.

We have already kicked off Bitesize Session’s on Behaviour Styles, The Power of Influence and Resolving Interpersonal Conflict, and graduates are enjoying these highly interactive sessions via Zoom.

“I was so surprised how the drivers matched my personality. I love reading books about personal development and this was something I’d never heard of, very interesting and definitely beneficial to both my personal and professional life. I enjoyed the interaction throughout the session, having cameras on and seeing everyone was great. Everyone had such a positive mindset.” – Hana Olsarova Graduate at Principality

Graduates have been making the most of lockdown, learning and developing new skills to support their future aspirations. The Programme team, our employers and University partner, USW, have all been impressed with the resilience and positivity shown by our graduates during this challenging time.

^{* https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/workers-thrive-covid-1}