In these challenging times, it's important for businesses to review their graduate programmes carefully to ensure they are offering the optimum package to university leavers and attracting the right candidates.
The Prison Service, and now the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), has had a variety of direct-entry programmes for high-potential graduates over the past 30 years.
However, many graduates still might not think of us as a graduate recruiter and almost certainly won't understand the sheer variety of opportunities that exist in an organisation like ours.
We tend to recruit relatively small numbers of graduates each year, particularly when compared to many of the blue-chip companies.
But if graduates are looking for a role that will genuinely challenge them on a daily basis; take them out of their comfort zone; and in return given them lots of opportunities for progression and responsibility very early on in their careers, then a place on the NOMS Graduate Programme might be for them.
Over the past 18-months we have reviewed all of our fast-track schemes and in fact decided not to recruit within the graduate market in 2008-09.
The organisation was going through a significant change programme at this time and it seemed like a good opportunity to review what had gone before and design a new programme, fit-for-purpose for the next five years and beyond.
A brand new programme
We talked to the business about what they want from graduate recruits, and we talked to around 20 graduates who have been through one of our earlier incarnations of a graduate scheme and then used this to design a brand new programme.
The graduates all felt that consistency of opportunity was one thing that was really important to them all, along with sufficient support when they are out in their establishments.
Jim Heavens
Bringing the funding of posts back into the centre of the organisation will help us to influence the consistency of opportunity and we have put a range of support mechanisms for new graduates in place including a buddy already on the programme in NOMS; a mentor within their establishment and one outside of their establishment; a central support team; and a fast-track champion in their region at senior management level.
The four-stage assessment process to get a place on this programme will be rigorous, as we are looking for talented individuals who have the potential to succeed in every role that they find themselves in, and to be operating at senior management level within a relatively short time frame.
Successful candidates will need to be able to communicate with people from all walks of life, have excellent leadership skills, be passionate about what we are trying to do, and have the resilience and tenacity to deal with some challenging situations in difficult environments.
Once on the programme, candidates will spend seven weeks at our national training centre in Warwickshire getting to grips with the organisation they have joined and then learning all they need to know to prepare them for their first placement, which will be between six to 12 months as a prison officer in one of our establishments.
If successful in this first role, candidates will then go on to be a first line-manger and 12 months later a middle-management role, or governor grade, in one of our establishments.
They will be supported throughout the programme, both locally and centrally; they will have a mentor; regular development workshops and the opportunity to apply for non-establishment based secondments in NOMS and the Ministry of Justice.
Once they have passed their operational manager assessments, they will then be able to apply for managerial posts across NOMS and we will encourage them to look to their next promotion, into senior management.
Jim Heavens is head of resourcing at the National Offender Management Service (NOMS)
