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More competition to snap up the best candidates

By Kate Creighton, Head of City Training at BPP Professional Education Ltd.

Competition among employers to snap up the best graduates has significantly increased since 2006. According to the Association of Graduate Recruiters' Summer Graduate Recruitment Survey 2007, the number of graduate level positions available across the UK is anticipated to rise by 12%, so competition among employers to get the best talent is set to be higher than ever. With forty three percent of graduate vacancies in the UK coming from London, competition in the City will be particularly fierce.

If you're a firm based in the banking and financial services sector, the good news is that you’ll probably be able to offer one of the highest salaries to attract the brightest and best talent. According to the survey, the median starting salary for a graduate in the banking and financial services sector is £37,000. However, emerging trends in this sector clearly show that graduates and other employees want more than just a decent salary – they want options and the skills they need to get on the career ladder.

According to the latest International Workplace Survey by specialist financial recruitment firm Robert Half International, companies are increasingly turning to training and development as a way to motivate and retain top talent. Seventy three percent of HR and finance managers believe training is the best way to boost retention in the workplace. This is closely followed by career development programmes (thirty seven percent), but financial compensation appeared only third on the list, with thirty one percent.

The trend is clear: you must be able to offer the best all-round package, not just a high salary, to sell your organisation to the brightest talent. This could include attractive salaries and welcome bonuses, but central to the package is structured career plans. Increasingly graduates are evaluating the induction and training programmes offered by employees, as well as their ongoing training commitments, as the most significant factor in their choice.

The challenge for employers is that the knowledge gained in an academic environment and the skills needed for a contribution to real-life in a financial institution are significantly different. Graduate training programmes provide a structured way of bridging this gap, and getting employees ready for work. They are about making graduates effective from day one and ensuring they are an asset to the organisation, right from the start. The more practical and relevant the training to future careers, the better.

Technical knowledge is central to any programme. However, BPP’s graduate programmes are increasingly including non-technical training too, to ensure that graduates get a formal, cultural and behavioural introduction to life in a financial organisation as well as the knowledge they need to progress. Life as a student is very different to, say, a client-facing role in an investment bank. A typical graduate programme will therefore include time management skills (how to work an 18-hour day and still have a life), presentation skills (how to make the right impression on clients and colleagues), communication skills and how to work within teams, to name a few.

The days of 'chalk and talk' are long gone and this is particularly the case with graduate programmes, which can be very intense. We know that 'information dumping' doesn’t work, so the more active and varied the learning is, the more the knowledge and skills are retained by the graduate. Our blended learning approach can include e-learning, classroom training, business simulations and trading games, case studies and exercises as well as ongoing testing and feedback to ensure that graduates remain motivated and focused throughout the programme. This diversity of techniques in delivering the course ensures that graduates retain the highest amount of information.

Competency is a crucial dimension of FSA regulation, particularly with MiFID on the short term horizon. For authorised firms, the FSA requires you to make a commitment to training and developing staff. A key part of most of our graduate programmes is giving firms ‘evidence’ of competency by including SII products as part of the programme. The most popular suite of products is the SII Certificates programme, covering Regulation, Securities, Derivatives, Securities and Financial Derivatives, Investment Management and the increasingly popular Corporate Finance arena. Many of our graduate programmes also consider longer term aims, such as training towards the SII Diploma qualification or the relatively new Corporate Finance qualification, examined by the ICAEW.

Well chosen, ongoing training obviously creates value for the firm by increasing the productivity of graduates. But it's the longer term benefits of programmes where the rewards for firms really kick in. Willingness to pro-actively train staff demonstrates commitment to the individual’s career progression and personal development, which strengthens long term staff loyalty and commitment to the firm. For the new graduates, a good training programme offers more than better and faster career progression; it stands out on an individual’s CV, making it marketable in its own right.

The key to a successful graduate training programme is tailoring it as much as possible to the client. Each programme is completely bespoke, and we always seek as much input as possible from the client to make it relevant. The most successful programmes we have run have been for clients who have invested time and resources in setting them up in partnership with us.

The other key element is ensuring that exam and non-exam training are combined effectively. This ensures that the competency requirements of the client are completely satisfied, and that the graduates have both the technical knowledge and the personal skills that make them ‘ready for work'. As an established provider of both types of training, our experience in this area is a crucial factor for a number of our top clients.