Training & development
“We started [our development] with some essential skills including presentation and influencing skills and learning how to develop your career brand, things I have found very useful for my whole career life. Because I have also had a team leading placement, I have had the opportunity to go onto a leadership training course with all the senior managers which has been beneficial for my coming career”.
Mei – Service Introduction Manager. Graduate Programme 2009 - 2011
For a visual representation of the development journey in place for our existing graduates, click on the image to the left.
Nationwide has a formidable reputation for training and development. In fact, we’ve received the ‘Investor in People’ accreditation every year since 1992. At our last assessment, we went one better and achieved Gold Champion status – the highest accolade possible for excellence in people management, communication and training and development.
Our graduate programmes are structured to provide ongoing development over the course of two years. They achieve this in five main ways:
Rotations
The programme itself is structured around 3 or 4 rotations. These rotations will broaden your knowledge, give you exposure to lots of different areas of the business and, in most cases, the chance to spend time working outside your division. This, in turn, will help you develop your skills, experience and network of contacts and determine which area of the business you’d like to work in longer term.
Real roles
We believe that on-the-job learning is crucial to understanding the skills and expertise required in any role. That’s why, from the day you start, and on each of your rotations, you’ll be doing a real job with clear expectations and targets.
You’ll be supported by our comprehensive training and mentoring programmes. But ultimately, it will be down to you to drive your own development. Through regular reviews with your line managers, you will be able to drive your own professional and personal development and knowledge to ensure it stays on track.
Mentors
The importance of the mentoring relationships you’ll have with one of our senior managers cannot be overestimated. It gives you a unique insight into the organisation, accelerates your professional development and provide you with an invaluable source of advice, guidance and general support.
Development Programme
Our structured development programme focuses on building your knowledge of the business, as well as your interpersonal skills and leadership skills. To help you on your journey to becoming a leader of tomorrow, we:
- Raise your self-awareness, through psychometric profiling, personality questionnaires and regular 360 feedback from managers and mentors
- Expose you to current business leaders throughout the organisation and develop your understanding of the theories they subscribe to
- Develop your core skills, such as those for communication and influencing
- Increase your business acumen, including your commercial and strategic awareness
- Get you involved with projects aimed at specific issues within your area of the business
- Develop your presentation skills and give you constructive feedback to help boost your performance in this area
- Expose you to senior management through mentoring relationships, and their sponsorship of the graduate programme
- Put the theory in practice, with experiential leadership development – ensuring you can apply everything you learn to real-world business issues.
