Training & Personal Development at WSP New Zealand

Good training opportunities (conferences) and grad programme is well structured.

I've received lots of support for on the job training and our managers support us for formal training, of which lots of courses are available

Majority of my training was on the job, the graduate programme suggests training courses throughout the year but none are mandatory

For my role, I have experienced on-the-job training (through projects, tasks and site visits) and formal training (lunch and learn sessions, technical presentations and group or one-on-one tutorials). Graduates are also enrolled in a Graduate Development Programme which o?ers online and in-person courses/workshops that develop skills like presentation, writing and project management. The online learning platform o?ers many other training modules for topics like health & safety, mentoring and M?oritanga.

A lot of on the job, informal training which I see a fast benefit from

I would like to have more on the job training. In my first month it was good but since then it has plateaued.

Akoranga courses/trainings were very useful in developing soft skills and practicing them too. These trainings helped me develop decision making skills within the workplace and a level of communication skill to give constructive feedback and ask effective questions.

presentation skills, project management skills, communication skills, team working skills, being comfortable with uncomfortables

Graduate development programme is good, could do with a bit more training in my team

I think the in-person workshops are definitely better and I get more out of them. The online ones seem forced and just don't provide the best environment for learning.

There is a lot of training that is very good, some personal skill you bring to the job are not easily taught - they are part of your personality, or better transferred/learnt through good mentoring/shadowing a senior employee. There is some thought that we have so many manuals that how to do things has a level of difficulty around the amount you need to read. My Ako courses are an efficient way to pass on information.

My training has largely been on the job with no certain "Training Programme" that I follow. My manager ?rst would look at the projects our team was working on and see if there were any small tasks that I could have a go at doing. I would then learn the various softwares we use and the standards we follow while also completing a task for our team. My team members would always be happy to help whenever I had a question and would encourage me to ask them whenever I was unsure. As I gained more skills and knowledge, the amount of tasks my manager was comfortable having me do would increase. I personally enjoy self-learning and ?guring things out as I go along so this method of training worked well for me. It is quite di?erent from the university style of learning where there would be a structured syllabus where the things you need to know are lined out and given to you. It will be good to know for applicants to be aware of this shift where a lot of the learning is self-directed.

I didn't have any training. I just got hired showed up and just worked it out on the spot. I had a pdf with a checklist of things to do and a "buddy" (graduate who has recently ?nished their graduate programme). The buddy is busy because they have a 40hr work week to do and the pdf was meant to be a guide but was just a checklist. I was confused and lost. I didn't know the WSP standards, expectations and got left to work things out myself. This was ok for some things like learning AutoCAD basics via videos myself where I got to learn at my own pace, but this wasn't ok when I started drawings where I had no idea how to setup a drawing. What fonts, colours and presentations is expected by WSP? What WSP settings should I have? Are there any? Where do I look? I suppose this is the part where I ask other sta? for help but a WSP introduction or training for my job would have been really useful.

WSP has a lot of internal training tools to help development and is willing to fund external training courses. Most training typically occurs on the job due to exposure to new and challenging problems and discussions with subject matter experts and experienced staff.

Ive been given many opportunities for training formal and informal. All have been great courses and valuable in my work

Training has been great. I have been able to attend conferences + workshops/ internal learning + lots of learning on job.