Benefits of offering a Graduate Placement

Finding suitably qualified and experienced procurement professionals can be a challenge. Recruiting and developing graduates is an excellent way to recruit new talent into the procurement profession, addressing resource needs in the short as well as long term.

Taking a graduate trainee means that you have someone in post committed to building their experience from the start. These individuals have completed a rigorous assessment process to ensure that they are capable of meeting the challenges faced by procurement professionals, and that they have the commercial aptitude required to succeed in the profession.

The accelerated learning and development programme that forms a core part of the Government Procurement Graduate Scheme provides a recognised and supported route to developing capable procurement professionals in just two years - but your organisation can obtain the benefit throughout this time, as the graduate trainees apply what they are learning in the workplace from day one.

Each graduate trainee is assigned a 'buddy' from a previous year who can help them settle in. The support network for the graduate trainees means that they have contacts across government from the beginning, who they can call on for sharing of ideas and best practice as well as personal support.

But it's not just the graduate trainees who are supported. Through representation on the Entry Schemes Board, departments and agencies also have their own network, to enable them to share successes and difficulties, and shape the future of the GPGS programme.

Find out what graduates and managers involved in the scheme think of the GPGS Experience...