A Case Study

Excelerated Performance International has been asked back 5 years running to provide a major professional development program for 30 ‘Year in Industry’ and ‘Industrial Placement’ students, together with their line managers for National Grid, UK, one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world.

The Business Need

The core aims of the program have been to get students up to speed as fast as possible, maximise their value to their teams and to the organisation, and to develop as many as possible to the required high standards for employment on the graduate scheme (against set criteria), reducing recruitment costs, and maximising retention.

National Grid wanted a development program that would empower the students to maximise their career value and engage them at the right level to suit the majority of the group who have an engineering background.


EPI’s Solution

The structure of the program is similar to that of the process covered above. Mark continuously consults directly with L&D to learn their business needs, performance gaps, measures and how to align the program. He also consults with the students and managers on the program to learn their personal needs in the areas of learning and performance. He then designs a way to align these.

The participants then receive an introduction to the program in the form of an interactive e-course/slide show and some reading.

Mark then runs face to face workshops for the line managers on how to bridge the gap between learning and results, and the students over a few weeks.

The student workshops cover:

Day 1: Accelerated Learning - how to self-direct your learning on and off the job to learn faster, more easily and more enjoyably

Days 2 and 3: Self management, personal development, productivity, business acumen, translating learning to results

Day 4: Presentations that work

Follow up takes place with Mark back in Australia. The students and managers receive a series of emails to help them apply what’s been learned, and periodic online assessments of progress and performance. Mark also makes himself available to answer any questions online and provide coaching over email. He also provides resources through the EPI website (tailored to the client) including specially made audio podcasts for the students which have been popular. Support from the website includes a social network platform for students to stay connected and discuss their learning and performance goals and challenges (in or out of work).


The Results

EPI’s work has been very thorough, extremely well received amongst the engineering types at National Grid, highly praised and most importantly measured over time against the original objectives and business needs.

Here’s what Emma Earnshaw, the L&D Specialist working on the program had to say about working with EPI back in 2008:

“Following the introduction of Mark’s programme to National Grid we have seen a marked increase in the conversion rates of our students moving onto our sponsored student schemes and graduate programmes. It has been evident in the assessment centres for these programmes that the student’s have been applying the tools and techniques that Mark has introduced them to. By being able to fill our trainee vacancies internally from our student population we are saving on significant external recruitment costs of £3000 per graduate hire and our student to graduate conversion rate has increased by up to 40% due to the impact of the development program.

Our students undertake their development programme a few months into their twelve month placement with us. The student managers regularly provide feedback that on returning from the programme they see a difference in approach and performance from their students within a few weeks, for example – they are more proactive, delivering better quality work due to being more organised and managing themselves better, now starting to plan ahead, delivering presentations with more confidence and clarity. Although you can’t put an exact figure on this type of return on investment we know that the student’s are delivering more value to National Grid from this anecdotal evidence and that the change we see in the students comes after their development experience with Mark.

Mark’s passion and drive to deliver the best learning experience for our students was a key reason why we chose to work with him and have renewed his contract with us for the past four years. His energetic and personable approach to his training delivery works extremely well with the students (his course feedback is always rated extremely high) and is based on best practise techniques that you don’t regularly see with other training companies.

His desire to demonstrate value in everything he does is refreshing compared to other similar trainers in the marketplace who often come in and deliver, get evaluation forms filled in on the day and then disappear. He always looks to work closely with us to determine how we can measure and evaluate the impact of what he is delivering and to understand the changing needs of the business.

He is also different to many trainers in that he is happy to provide ongoing email contact with our students at no cost to remind them of their development actions and to introduce new material to think about. Again this is usually something that trainers charge for and is rarely offered as a value added service at no cost. Mark is also very easy to work with, flexible and quick to respond and turn things round which is an essential quality we demand from our contracted trainers. It is a pleasure to work in partnership with him and I can honestly say that at no point over the past four years has there been a moment of frustration or challenge – a unique experience when working with external trainers!

Emma Earnshaw, L&D Specialist, National Grid Plc

What You Need to Know

Why You Must Act Now