Skills for the Future

Each of our brand companies offers training and development opportunities to help our people grow in their role and beyond. And because we're a multi-brand business, development opportunities aren't restricted to any single company.

Reaching full potential

Each of our divisions provides training to enable our employees to deliver great service for our customers, and invests in the skills we need for the future. The changing nature of transport and mobility, particularly new vehicle technologies and energy transition, requires us to adapt the way we develop, operate and maintain our services. To deliver that change, we need a healthy, engaged, agile and diverse workforce with the skills and expertise for a zero carbon economy, equipped to innovate and deliver mobility for the future.

Opportunities for all

Across the UK and Ireland we offer all our employees the opportunity to reach their full potential, whether in our bus or rail divisions or our Corporate Centre.

Each of our brand companies offers training and development opportunities to help individuals grow in their role and beyond. And because we're a multi-brand business, development opportunities aren't restricted to the company they join.

Additionally, we offer development programmes for individuals from groups that may be under-represented in management or leadership positions.

Apprenticeships

Our apprenticeship programmes are an important way of growing the engineering and operational skills which are vital to our business. We are running industry leading programmes that are fully integrated into the fabric of our organisation, working in key areas of the business such as Engineering, Human Resources, Customer Service and Business Administration. We have 792 apprentices in training across First Bus and First Rail, with 26% of apprentices recruited over the last year being women.

In First Bus, our partnership with Reaseheath College, Cheshire entered its second year in FY 2023. There were 82 apprentices learning at the UK’s first engineering academy for the next generation of zero emission coaches and buses, specialising in mechanical and electrical engineering, coachbuilding and stores.

First Bus engineering academy

First Bus, in partnership with Reaseheath College, Cheshire, currently have 75 apprentices learning at the UK’s first engineering academy for the next generation of zero emission coaches and buses, specialising in mechanical and electrical engineering, coachbuilding and stores. This is in addition to a new apprenticeship programme for bus drivers, partnering up with leading training provider Realise to build a sustainable pathway for new drivers.

ascent

ascent is the brand we've created to house all our Group-level development programmes. Employees can take part in personal development programmes to unlock potential, build confidence, and get employees ready to take that next step.

ascent UP

Our ascent UP programme is designed for colleagues who belong to groups that are under-represented in manager and leadership roles, specifically women, ethnically diverse men and women, those who identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and those who identify as neurodiverse or living with a disability.

The programme aims to build the capabilities and confidence of colleagues who have the aspiration to move into their first people management role in the next 12-18 months.

Delivered over a 3-month period, the programme consists of 3 one-day workshops and the content includes:

·       Understanding self, building confidence, impact, influence, resilience and wellbeing

·       Managing careers through career planning, applications and interviews

·       Preparing for a team leader role including development planning and skills development

ascent FORWARD

Our ascent FORWARD programme is designed for colleagues who belong to groups that are under-represented in manager and leadership roles, specifically women, ethnically diverse men and women, those who identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and those who identify as neurodiverse or living with a disability.

The programme aims to build the capabilities and confidence of colleagues who have experience of line management and have the aspiration to move into a ‘Head of’ level or equivalent role within the next 1-2 years.

Delivered over a 4-month period, the programme comprises two 2-day face-to-face workshops and the content includes:

·       'Leading myself forward' to learn about maximising potential, presence and impact, visibility and sponsorship, knowing yourself, and organisation and market context

·       'Leading others and the organisation forward' including self confidence, leveraging difference, maximising impact, finance for non-finance managers, business leader roles and influence

ascent ACCELERATE

Our ascent ACCELERATE programme is designed for colleagues who belong to groups that are under-represented in senior leadership roles, specifically women, ethnically diverse men and women, those who identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and those who identify as neurodiverse or living with a disability. It aims to build the capability of colleagues for senior level or executive level roles within FirstGroup.

Delegates are likely to already hold “Head of” or equivalent level roles and have been recognised through the talent management process, already demonstrating high performance and high potential to move into larger and more complex leadership positions.

Programme Design

The programme will be shaped by the requirements of the attendees and will:

·       Provide a real focus on facilitated discussions, individual coaching, and networking opportunities rather than lots of ‘delivered’ material

·       Be delivered in small cohorts providing some facilitated learning sessions, individual coaching informed by 360 survey and psychometric assessment and mentoring

·       Tackle business challenges using an action-centred learning approach

·       Offer a blend of online and in-person sessions (1.5-day workshop, involving an overnight stay and a one-day workshop)

Programme Content

The programme includes the following:

·       Understanding your own personal impact and style, using 360-degree feedback and the Hogan Personality Inventory

·       Understanding your impact as a Leader

·       Resilience

·       Leading diverse teams

·       Collaboration across functions and teams

First Bus Leadership Programme

To support our Leaders with the transformation at First Bus, we have developed a leading-edge Leadership Development programme which we’ve called ‘Leadership Lab’ with the aim of significantly improve our leadership capabilities and enabling us to be fit for the future.

Leadership Lab has been designed with our partners at EYLane4 to equip the First Bus leadership population with models, concepts, practical case-studies and some leading-edge management theory across the core modules of, ‘leading self’, ‘leading people’ and ‘leading transformation’.

It’s called Leadership Lab as our leaders be experimenting with new concepts in a safe environment before putting these new skills to the test and learning from the results.

Through a wide-ranging and multi-channel programme of delivery including, 360-degree feedback, immersive face-to-face off-site leadership training, peer-to-peer action learning, coaching from external facilitators, external expert virtual masterclasses and leadership exchanges with external organisations, First Bus ‘Leadership Lab’ will allow our leaders to be in the best shape possible to deliver the First Bus strategy.

First Connections

First connections was launched in January 2024 and is our advocate network for colleagues who have completed one of our ascent positive action, personal development programmes.

It is a growing network (of around 550 colleagues in April 2024) that continues to provide peer support and challenge and an opportunity to continue learning from others, as well as an opportunity to carry on creating the connections that were made during the programme. First connections bridges the gap between ending a programme and securing the next role and acts as a peer support network to champion confidence and give courage to step forward and up.

Discover other training and development opportunities

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