At EiB, we invest in our people to develop talented, multiskilled teams who build effective partnerships with our clients and unlock their potential and success.
To do this, we continually exceed our commitment to the 5% Club by more than threefold. For the seventh year running, we will be recruiting our next graduate cohort, supporting their journey to become capable work winning professionals through our Chartered Management Consultant (ChMC) accredited training and development programme.
The 5% Club is a movement of employers committed to achieving 5% of their workforce in ‘earn and learn’ positions, including graduates and apprentices.
Since 2019, we have adhered to this commitment, allowing us to strengthen our talent pipeline by attracting and nurturing the next generation of work winning talent. Currently, more than 16% of our workforce are in earn and learn positions, receiving internal and external training, mentoring, and support. Our approach to helping new talent to accelerate their careers, whether that be in bid writing, management, graphic design or administration, is flexible to support individual needs. This includes providing opportunities to attend industry events, achieve accreditations, and pursue interests such as AI or wellbeing. We are passionate about giving our team the agency to drive their career in the way which works for them while support EiB to deliver market-leading bidding support.
Our two-year structured graduate programme provides milestone qualifications at the end of year two through Association of Proposal Management Professionals certification and ChMC associate certification at the end of year three. In addition, our programme balances technical and bid writing skills with soft skills such as resilience, public speaking and personal development, producing well-rounded graduates who deliver exceptional outcomes.
Their forward-thinking ideas combined with their newly developed and practiced skills make our graduates and apprentices invaluable to our team. Working alongside experienced professionals allows for two-way, shared learning and our investment into future talent helps us to contribute to a stronger and more innovative industry.
By developing our workforce to the highest standard while integrating them into a supportive culture which strives for continuous learning, we have grown and retained exceptional talent. As consultants, our graduates’ development is accelerated by providing the opportunity to work across a breadth of sectors with a range of clients. This allows them to build a professional portfolio, enabling them to add real value and progress through the business. Accelerated development is evidenced through over 18 graduate and apprenticeship alumni continuing to thrive within the business and a third of our senior management team having completed the graduate programme. The success of our team in earn and learn positions is an achievement we are very proud of, and will continue to be as we look to recruit more new talent this year.
Here’s what our team have to say…
“At EiB, learning and development started from day one. I am supported through structured graduate training, and soft skills development, while working on real projects. Being a graduate in a fast growing industry is rewarding; I learn directly from experienced colleagues to apply established best practice as I develop in my role.” – Sam Waller
“During my time completing my business administration apprenticeship, I developed numerous skills which aligned and contributed extremely well to my role at EiB. I had an exceptional amount of support throughout the duration of this course, not only from my coach but also my colleagues and organisation. My apprenticeship was a key foundation, at the beginning of my role, in developing my confidence, knowledge and communication skills as I was able to gain experience working independently as well as collaboratively within a professional team” – Saarrah Ehgie
“At EiB there is a wealth of knowledge everywhere you turn. All of my colleagues have been exceedingly helpful and engaged in my development, no question is too simple and no query is too mundane. With the support of my manager Joe, and every member of the team, my skill development and knowledge now is unrecognizable compared to 4 months ago and I look forward to continuing on that trajectory in the months and years to come.” – Ben Smith
“I am privileged to contribute to EiB’s 5% Club commitments by recruiting, training, and managing our yearly graduate cohort. I never get tired of seeing career starters grow in confidence and flourish on our most complex assignments, due to EiB’s sustained investment in their potential.” – Joe Stewart, Deputy Professional Head of Graduate Development