Management Trainee Review

The purpose of the graduate scheme is the rotate four six month placements and get an experience of the wider business. This is particularly important at ENGIE as it has such a vast scope. At the moment I am a shift trader, this entails running processes and trading gas and electricity with the market.

I have learnt a lot about management and have recently started to refine my process driven side by entering into projects that require advanced excel skills. I have had the chance to manage various projects of a range of sizes and had exposure to some very high level people. I am currently undergoing an intensive training period to become a fully qualified trader.

The opportunities that you get from the graduate programme at ENGIE are second to none, and I appreciate this every day. Other grad schemes with large intakes don't seem to give the management experience that ENGIE gives to the graduates. I have taken on some serious responsibility and senior roles which wouldn't be available elsewhere.

In terms of the apprenticeship, the structure was quite rocky at first as we were the first year of graduates to complete it and we enrolled straight after the Apprentice Levy was introduced so the apprenticeships side of our training provider had expanded quite rapidly very suddenly and they didn't seem to have good control over it.

There is constant support from central functions as a graduate, but the support from your placement manager depends entirely on which placement you have joined. It varies across the company, but the placement I am currently in offers great support that flows through the entire team so there is always someone there to help you.

I initially met with my skills coach around every month and had a workshop every two weeks. My skills coach changed and the new one wanted to meet up a lot more frequently - sometimes weekly - but this fit in well as the intensity of the workshops decreased from once a fortnight to once a quarter to none when we had completed the course.

I have gained valuable skills in management theory that I had no formal training in before. Rather than managing a team, it has helped me to be able to communicate with the team that I am in and manage upwards in terms of expectations and influence. The project management and finance management modules I use daily.

There is scope to form your own group, and I have done so with three other graduates. We have formed a STEM group where we are trying to encourage ENGIE to help fill their own STEM skills gap by influencing the younger generation through going into schools and engaging with the community.

Yes

I think that the core of ENGIE's business is really meaningful, and the focus on Corporate Responsibility is always there. There are always opportunities to start your own group, experience different parts of the business or talk to people in senior positions. The benefits are also very good and ENGIE care about their employees.

The graduate scheme seems to employ very specific people with very big personalities that meet the ENGIE middle management competencies. These can be found on the ENGIE website and include a lot of scope around leadership abilities and being able to talk to anyone within the company regardless of their position.