You’re dedicated to setting your grads up for success.
You run high-quality workshops, carefully choose facilitators, and cover the skills that matter most.
You’re driven by the goal of seeing the impact of your investments reflected in your grads’ growth and contributions.
Yet, like many organizations, you may find that these efforts don’t always translate fully into your grads’ daily work.
In our recent webinar with GOJII, “Maximising ROI on Graduate Development: Integrating Learning for Real Results,” we explored what’s holding back graduate programs from achieving full impact, and shared simple, actionable solutions you can take to bridge the gap.
Whether it’s through connecting skills with day-to-day tasks, reinforcing new learning, or providing structured support, these strategies can make a tangible difference in your grads’ success—and in the long-term value of your program.
Common Challenges: Why Workshop Learning doesn’t Always Stick
Many organisations find that while workshops cover the right skills and are led by excellent facilitators, they don’t always translate to what grads actually do in their day-to-day roles. This can stem from:
- Learning in Isolation: Workshops often stand alone, making it hard for grads to see how what they learned connects to their daily work.
- Little Follow-Up: If skills aren’t revisited or practised, they quickly fade. Grads need consistent chances to apply what they’ve learned, or the impact gets lost.
- Busy Managers: Managers don’t always have the time to follow up on what grads are learning (or may not even be across it in the first place!)
- Information Retention & Support Gaps: Graduates may struggle to retain what they’ve learnt if they don’t receive timely support or practical guidance for applying new skills.
What’s at Stake: The Risks of Not Applying Skills
When grads don’t get a chance to apply new skills, your organisation misses out on the full return on its investment. Without this real-world application, several risks arise:
- Wasted Investment: Training resources go unused, which means your company doesn’t fully benefit from the money and time spent.
- Limited Skill Development: Grads need to use new skills in practical ways to truly develop. Without application, they can’t reach their full potential.
- Program Disengagement: When grads feel their training doesn’t connect with their actual work, they can feel less engaged or less confident in their roles, leading to a drop in motivation.
So… what’s the solution?
The Power of Mentoring to Bridge the Gap
Mentoring is a powerful way to help grads put their training into action. A good mentor offers guidance and support, which helps graduates bridge the gap between learning new skills and using them on the job:
- Skill Reinforcement: Mentors help grads take what they’ve learned and practice it in real-world situations, turning new skills into solid capabilities.
- Increased Engagement: Mentors keep grads engaged and invested in their growth. In fact, 82% of our mentees report significant improvements in their interpersonal skills through mentorship alone.
- Personalised Development: Mentors guide grads based on their unique goals and strengths, creating a learning experience that’s relevant and rewarding. When grads see progress in ways that align with their personal career goals, they’re more motivated to keep building on it.
The Final Piece: Brining Structure to Your Mentorship Program
Effective mentoring programs go beyond just connecting grads with mentors – they set up a support system that sets graduates up to thrive. What goes into creating your own structured mentorship program?
- Tailored, Strategic Matches: Matching grads with mentors who understand their goals helps build meaningful, supportive relationships. For a more rounded experience, consider pairing grads with both a mentor to guide and a People Leader to provide technical learning and skills.
- Accountability & Regular Check-Ins: Frequent check-ins create accountability, making sure grads stay on track and keep building on what they’ve learned.
- A Safe Practice Space: Mentoring provides a safe environment where grads can refine new skills before applying them in broader contexts.
- Guided Resources: Structured resources for mentors and grads keep sessions productive and focused, with tools for discussing specific skills and applying them to real scenarios.
- Clear Expectations and Support: Setting expectations for both mentors and mentees simplifies the process, making it easier for mentors to guide and for grads to gain confidence and see progress.
We know how much time, money, and effort you dedicate to running your graduate development program and giving your graduates the best possible start to their careers at your organisation.
If you’re finding it challenging to translate workshop learning into consistent, on-the-job skills, we hope these insights help you get even closer to maximising the value of your development efforts.
For organisations looking to take this even further, our structured mentoring program is designed to bridge that gap between training and real-world application. If you want to see your graduates fully engaged and actively using the skills they’ve learned, our mentoring program can help reinforce learning and boost confidence—all while relieving your managers of some of the time-intensive follow-up.
To learn more about how we can partner with you to boost the ROI on your graduate development program, please don’t hesitate to reach out here.
