The Arcadis Transitions Traineeship, which has hired 10 trainees for 6 months (9 Graduate Engineers, 1 Programme Administrator) is not about 'hiring Refugees' ! It's about inclusive talent attraction. Arcadis is looking for staff. It opened the Traineeships to Transitions to provide 6 month employed Trainee positions to candidates with the required skill base so that after the 6 months they were on a level playing field in the UK, with recent references and recent experience. A business investment not charity.

1. ARCADIS TRANSITIONS TRAINEESHIP
Transitions Stakeholder Seminar | 20 October 2016

2. © Arcadis 2015
Why?
“Improving the Quality of Life”
Arcadis prides itself on “Improving the Quality of Life”, it is our passion and what we do. In
response to the European Refugee Crisis, Arcadis Europe wanted to react in a proactive
and meaningful way.
In the UK we focused our efforts on creating a Traineeship programme with the aim of
offering support, development and on the job training to refugee professionals. We
wanted to ensure that they were paid fairly for the work they would do and that the
programme would be mutually beneficial.
Arcadis
SustainabilityTraining
D&ISupport Crisis

3. © Arcadis 2015
How?
“Improving the Quality of Life”
Back in December 2015 we made contact with Transitions, this was our first
major breakthrough in making this project come to life. Giving us access to
refugee professionals with the right skills and knowledge who were actively
seeking opportunities.
At the direction of Transitions we set up a half day workshop in March, the
event was a success and was attended by refugee professions, Transitions and
many members of our wider HR, Recruitment and L&D teams. The event was
eye opening, we learned more from the attendees that they did from us!
Then the hard bit, we as a HR team were convinced that this programme could
work, we had senior leadership buy in and support, but we needed to find ‘real’
roles in our business that suited the skill sets and matched the business need.

4. © Arcadis 2015
What?
“Improving the Quality of Life”
The programme was designed to include a two week Induction into Arcadis.
• To ensure when the team members started work they would be familiar with the
Arcadis way of working, the values and culture of the organisation.
• To have a support network built around their roles and
• Clear communication lines
The six month programme is set out to include:
• Clear review dates with line managers to aid development of their role
• An overarching project to work on over the 6 months to give Arcadis an insight in
how to improve diversity in the organisation, using their experiences.
• Support in securing permanent roles after six months.

5. © Arcadis 2015
So far, so good?
“Improving the Quality of Life”
The feedback has been positive:
Comment: Induction programme, design was nicely made up for new starter
like me, to put me on the right track, I found all the training useful and positive,
helping us to relate to different concepts in Arcadis, and a more clear vision
about our time here, everything is necessary for a new starter, heled to adapt to
the company culture and improve soft skills.
Comment: highly appreciated to include IT as a feature of induction and the
sessions were very useful, I personally learnt a number of new things through
this session

6. © Arcadis 2015
Lessons Learned
“Improving the Quality of Life”
• Launch at a different time of year- holiday season
• Encourage Line Managers and Buddies to attend training events with their
team members.
• Clearer role definitions
• We want to do it again!