Graduate programs: An opportunity for both young people and businesses

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

One of the most critical moments in the professional life of any person occurs paradoxically right at the beginning of it. After years of theoretical and practical training, the way to access the companies or sectors that attract us most is not clearly presented, and we often run the risk of embarking on any type of project for fear of being left out of the labor market, instead of really focusing on what interests us.

In a complex, fast, changing and highly competitive work context, graduate programs are a good way both to facilitate the access of young professionals to work and to enable companies to integrate the most promising talent they can train very well.

These programs are usually intended for junior profiles: that is, for newly graduates or those who still have limited professional experience - usually between 1 or 2 years old. As Montse Castilla, Socia and General Manager of AdQualis Talent Search explains, they can also address “both the incorporation of our internship professionals, as well as contributing to the professional development of those who are already part of the organization, and thanks to these programs can be consolidated in their organizational charts.”

In both cases, however, the objective of the graduate programs is the same: to look for the best talent that can be developed later and stay in the company.

Its duration is usually between one and five years, and, as Castilla points out, “They are usually undertaken mainly from large multinational companies, which have the structure and resources to allow a constant flow of junior professionals in training.”

Recruiters in charge of looking for these graduates tend to focus primarily on the academic training of candidates, “although their competency profile, and, especially, skills such as initiative, curiosity, influence, goal orientation, skills communicative, the ability to cooperate proactively or their level of English are in high demand.” Therefore, these skills are subsequently valued in activities such as role play and group dynamics.

Once the recruiter - in our case the division of AdQualis Talent Search, pioneer in Spain in the implementation of this type of programs developed comprehensively for companies from different sectors of activity - has found the profiles that best meet the expectations From a company, through social media platforms, job boards from universities and business schools or the AdQualis database itself, graduates conduct a curriculum interview.

The next step is, according to Castilla, one of the distinguishing features of these programs:

“Often, the company selects between 6 and 8 finalists and holds an assessment day in which individual and teamwork skills are tested in order to assess the competences and technical skills of each candidate through role play activities, group dynamics, or business cases.”

Once these sessions have been completed, the candidates selected by the company are incorporated with structured plans and focused on their professional development and training, "beginning to forge a solid foundation in the organization and carrying out continuous training that will make them even better professionals."

This is for Castilla perhaps the most important feature of the graduate programs, which, “unlike a mere internship program, is actually a landing platform of the best talent in companies so that it continues to develop within them and be more faithful to the organization: something of special relevance in the current context, in which young professionals are increasingly less attached to the companies they work for and consider their careers as a pilgrimage by several companies.”

In this sense, the data collected by AdQualis based on its extensive experience in the design and deployment of these types of programs prove that “they successfully complete a high percentage of incorporation of these graduates into companies and the development of long professional careers in its context."

Montse Castilla also points out that a good program of graduates ultimately seeks "a mutual crush between the company and the candidate, so that transparency and sincerity throughout the process are essential to ensure a good fit."

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.