IT@Spectrum has recently taken on 8 sales trainees in a bid to develop young professionals, bridge the skills gap and give young people necessary life skills.
Made in Yorkshire patron IT@Spectrum is an award-winning business specialising in printers, digitisation and manual paper-based process automation. With over 35 years of experience, IT@Spectrum help organisations make significant savings in time and money by introducing print management processes and automating manual paper-based processes to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The company is accredited by Canon and ISO 9001 and has recently received the highest possible status under Canon's partner scheme as 1 of 9 Platinum Partners.
IT@Spectrum have created a 12-month intensive learning and development programme for 16-24-year-olds called Spectrum Campus. From 9th September 2019 until the end of August 2020, 8 trainees, selected from 250 applicants, will learn first hand the skills to be the Salespeople of the future. The 8 successful candidates undertook a high-pressure interview process which included 1 to 1 interviews, presentations, group exercises and more.
The Yorkshire based company is committed to providing young people with the “skills and attributes they need to succeed in a fast-paced sales environment". The company recently moved premises to Bridgehead Business park in Hull, to facilitate the Campus. As well as making a significant financial investment in order to develop these young professionals.
Expert sales and professional development leaders Jane Harper, former Head of Learning and Development at Canon (UK), and Lee Evans, Sales Director of IT@Spectrum, produced the industry-leading training scheme that will show trainees the Spectrum way of thinking and create a talented workforce with the help from global brands such as Canon and Natwest. The campus group not only has the opportunity to become sales professionals but could possibly become the next leaders of the organisation.
Trainees will not get a qualification from the development programme, however, this was an active decision by IT@Spectrum after reviewing the existing qualifications available, deeming them too generic to work around the tailored programme content. Successful trainees will be offered something much more valuable, a full-time job in a professional sales role.
Lauren Walker, a trainee at Spectrum Campus, was one of the lucky few to be selected and was keen to tell us about her experience so far. Lauren has recently graduated from University where she studied English History and Politics, she decided to apply for Spectrum Campus because she wanted to challenge herself after being in full-time education. She said:
“I wanted the opportunity to try something completely out of my comfort zone, this is something different but I saw it as a positive challenge and doing something I quite like. I love interacting with people so thought I would give it a go and I am really enjoying it ”
“During my time at Spectrum Campus so far we have been interacting with all of the departments within the business, it really highlighted the importance of all of the different departments working together for the business to be as successful as it is. Something I really enjoyed was going out with an engineer on-site and interacting with customers face to face”.
Lauren was selected from 250 applicants and was surprised when she found out she was one of the chosen to attend the campus, she said:
“Because of my background studying English History and Politics at University, I was surprised I was chosen to join the course. However, I am really happy I was!”.
We asked Lauren, other than being offered a full-time sales role with IT@Spectrum, what would she like to gain from her time at the Campus:
“When I complete my training at Spectrum Campus I would like to take away a different working experience. I would also like to gain key communication skills and dealing with other people. In terms of IT@Spectrum, I am looking forward to taking away the software and technical skills I am already learning at the moment”
Spectrum Campus is another leading example of the development that is happening at IT@Spectrum, after also receiving Platinum Partner accreditation from Canon PLC, who is the 7th most reputable brand in the world. Canon is helping with the development of young professionals with speaker talks and tailored workshops. This specialist training will involve local solicitors, accountants, well-known banks and many more. A press release that was recently published by IT@Spectrum stated: “We are committed to developing local youth and want to show next year potential applicants there is an alternative to university that will lead to an exciting career.”
You can follow the progress of the Spectrum Campus on the company's LinkedIn page and by using the hashtag #SpectrumCampus.