Early Careers OPEN Programme

Are you looking to optimise the value of your early career employees? Discovery’s Early Careers OPEN Programme develops soft and business skills through ongoing, hands-on learning. Do more for your business by bringing out the excellence in your early careers talent.

Develop your Early Careers talent today

As a company we are committed to developing graduate talent; however, like many other businesses, because of our size we are unable to offer a dedicated in-house graduate training programme. The OPEN Programme has been a fantastic solution for us – shortly after one of our team completed it, we could already see how it was benefiting both the graduate and the organisation in general. So much so that we signed up our latest graduate for the next programme.

Mary Narey, HR Advisor, Muntons

About the Programme

The Early Careers OPEN Programme is beneficial for any organisation looking to future-proof their business through early talent. The programme enables organisations to:

Create a talent pipeline to aid succession planning

Reduce the risk around skills gaps

Grow their own talent and develop future leaders

Prepare talent for the working world

We use experiential interventions and classroom sessions, a neurobiological behavioural profiling tool, Parallax, and peer-to-peer learning to provide delegates with the relevant tools, knowledge and experiences to an effective member of the team, and a future leader. The programme not only aids the retention of early careers employees within your business, but it also fast-tracks development and therefore the ROI on your high-potential talent. We recognise a training course alone is not the answer to successful early careers recruitment and development. How delegates use these skills back in your business is also key, which is why we provide on-going coaching and support to delegates and their line managers for the duration of the programme. This is absolutely fundamental to accelerated individual development.

Qualification and funding options

Our core programme, consisting of an induction session, four experiential modules, and on-going coaching and support visits, will also incorporate different elements and requirements between modules depending on the funding chosen.

Apprenticeship levy-funded programme

Apprenticeship Qualification

By using your apprenticeship levy for the OPEN Programme, your employees will complete a Level 5 Operations/Departmental Manager Apprenticeship . In order to successfully complete the apprenticeship, there is a requirement for 20% of the working week to be spent on work-based learning, equivalent to one working day, for the duration of the apprenticeship.

Additional ILM Diploma

Alongside completing the work to obtain an apprenticeship, delegates have the option to complete an ILM qualification in Leadership & Management. Much of the work undertaken as part of the apprenticeship will form the requirements for achieving this, and the additional work and the additional work can contribute towards their 20% work-based learning. This great opportunity allows your employees to obtain an ILM Diploma (Level 5) in Leadership & Management. This qualification incurs additional costs.

The OPEN Programme for SMEs and non-apprenticeship levy paying employers

Developing Future Leaders certificate

The Early Careers OPEN Programme, which is available to organisations regardless of size, gives your delegates the opportunity to obtain a Level 3 ILM Development Programme certificate for completing “The Discovery OPEN Programme – Developing Future Leaders”. This funding option doesn’t require delegates to spend 20% of their working week on work-based learning, but will require some work to be completed between modules. This qualification incurs additional costs.

October 2019 cohort – key dates

Induction Day: Wednesday 9^th October 2019

Module 1: Sunday 20^th-Wednesday 23^rd October 2019

Module 2: Sunday 16^th-Wednesday 19^th February 2020

Module 3: Sunday 21^st-Wednesday 24^th June 2020

Module 4: Sunday 18^th-Wednesday 21^st October 2020

February 2020 cohort – key dates

Induction Day: Wednesday 26^th February 2020

Module 1: Tuesday 17^th-Friday 20^th March 2020

Module 2: Tuesday 21^st-Friday 24^th July 2020

Module 3: Tuesday 17^th-Friday 20^th November 2020

Module 4: Tuesday 9^th-Friday 12^th March 2021