Pan African Graduate Development Programme

Objective

To equip youth with technical, business and financial skills to bridge the gap between education and work, while developing future African business leaders in the financial services industry.

Overview and Main Activities

The Pan-African Graduate Development Programme (PAGDP) came out of a programme run across Barclay’s operations in South Africa (Absa), which was extensively revised to operate across all of Barclay’s businesses on the African continent.

PAGDP provides graduates with a meaningful role within the business, a formal mentorship programme and an additional formal training programme. It balances on-the-job learning, self-paced assignments and formal summits where graduates are brought together to learn. PAGDP bridges the gap between graduation and actual employment by linking business vacancies to suitably qualified graduates with scarce skills relevant to all Barclay’s areas. Graduates participate in an integrated programme that develops behavioural and technical skills for the financial services sector, and is designed in collaboration with Duke Corporate Education. Throughout, participants receive mentorship from Barclay’s employee volunteers or alumni of previous year’s programmes.

The programme runs for 12 months and targets graduates in their first formal working experience after graduation. It is directly linked to skill needs in the business and allows for flexibility as to what skills each country or business area requires and which graduates are employed. The programme is open to all functions, from direct client-facing businesses through to middle and back office functions.

Graduates are required to create a portfolio of evidence that balances their on-the-job performance with their performance in self-paced learning, group assignments, PAGDP summits and their contribution to Barclay’s Citizenship initiatives. The balanced portfolio approach ensures that graduates are well-rounded and able to perform in all aspects of the professional environment. Technical aspects of the programme are addressed through on-the-job learning while assignments and summits focus on behavioural aspects. The programme aims to develop self-insight, communication, networking and leadership competencies.

At the end of the programme, most graduates continue their careers within the group. For those looking for new opportunities, the Early Careers team and mentors proactively direct candidates to the Barclays internal recruitment process and refers graduates to external recruitment agencies, other partners and clients. The intention is to retain as many graduates as possible, so the external referral process is dealt with as an exception and not the norm.

Success Factors and Challenges

Most critical success factors:

• Direct involvement of the business, both in terms of setting priorities and supporting graduates in their on-the-job learning, mentoring as well as freeing them up to attend the formal sections of the programme
• Strategic aligning programme with organization’s priorities for developing scarce skills and future leaders

Main challenges:

• Designing an appropriate programme that was equally relevant across all geographies in Africa and all areas of the business
• Balancing the demands of bringing the graduates into one central location while allowing parts of the programme to run in-country

Recommendations for Others

Involve all stakeholders as early as possible. Designing a programme merely for the sake of having a programme will have negative consequences for the business and create negative employer brand with graduates and academic institutions. Resistance from line managers and prospective candidates is more difficult to overcome after the fact. In addition, partnering with organizations with competence and track records with graduate programmes is likely to reduce lead times. Finally, be sure to design a programme that balances content consistency with flexibility.

Replicability and Scalability

How easily could other organizations implement this initiative?
Difficult: The challenge is developing content that is relevant, flexible and can be delivered in multiple formats across geographies, businesses and functions.

How easily can this initiative be expanded to include a larger number of participants?
Difficult: Costs are high – for the programme, travel, accommodation and opportunity cost of participant’s time. It is best to replicate across other organizations.

About the Organization

Website: www.barclaysafrica.com
Sector: Banking and Capital Markets
Size (number of employees): 50,000+
Headquarters: Johannesburg, South Africa

For Further Engagement

Contact name: Heather Day
Contact position: Director, Strategic Partnership Events
Email: [email protected]