Investing in talent means investing in a future of growth. As Kirey Group, we are aware of the importance of training at all stages of each person's career, and it is from this awareness that the Digital Transformation Master, a training course dedicated to apprentices joining our organization, was born. Three years of classes, including hard skills & project management, soft skills, market trends, and compulsory training modules, taught by both internal and external faculty from InsideOut, a company specialized in corporate training. All this, in a virtual classroom involving 24 young professionals who just a few weeks ago concluded their first "school year". We have talked about this first milestone achieved together with five of them: Giacomo Gelli, Data Warehouse Designer; Matteo Inchingolo, Software Developer; Francesco Lo Vullo, Software Developer; Francesca Marengo, HR Specialist; and Tommaso Pratesi, Technology Administrator.
Initially, the invitation to the Master's program was taken with surprise: "When I received the communication, I was amazed", comments Francesca, "because it is not common for a company to offer junior figures such a comprehensive training course as a Master's program”. "I thought it was a nice demonstration of how much Kirey believes in young professionals", adds Francesco "and believes that they can bring energy, positivity, and breathe new life into the company”. And, for some of them, the Master's program represented an unknown opportunity: "Before I started, I didn’t have high expectations", says Giacomo, "Instead, today I can say that this year of training has been useful both for the more technical and internal part, related to the knowledge of the different business lines, both for the soft skills"; the latter initially aroused skepticism even in Matteo, who changed his mind during the course: "The interactive and collaborative teaching method with which the activities were proposed and the insights related to soft skills made me reconsider the prejudices that, as a good technician, I had before starting. I tried to make the most of this whole experience just by working on myself and my communication. I took it as an opportunity to overcome my introverted nature and jumped in. I wasn't afraid to step in, saying something wrong".
Among the topics on which they experimented, after the theoretical explanations, we find, for example, the theory that associates different personalities with colors, and the elevator pitch technique, a concise presentation of yourself or your product, which should leave a mark in the time of an elevator ride. "Knowing how to sell is not part of my DNA", says Giacomo, "and that is why understanding the dynamics of business communication that the elevator pitch represents for me has been important. I am now working on this both professionally and personally".
The lessons dedicated to soft skills left their mark on the students, also thanks to the format: "Working in groups was constructive and allowed us to give depth to the theoretical explanations with examples and role-plays", says Tommaso. "In the lesson dedicated to personality, character aspects, and colors, for example, we dropped what we learned on hypothetical real cases that we might encounter every day at work”.
Teamwork is not only an opportunity to better understand theoretical concepts and get involved but also to know colleagues never met before, because of the Group-wide hybrid work mode. "This path allowed me to give faces to what were previously names", Francesca explains, "as HR it is natural to hear from colleagues in their entry phase, but being able to work with some of them was a novelty, and I was very pleased”.
Of the same mind Francesco, who lives and works from Palermo: "I started working at Kirey in full remote, so it was valuable for me to extend my knowledge to other colleagues. Then, in October, I had the opportunity to work in presence in Turin. I was there for a whole month and it was great to see some of my classmates in person, in the office. Internal networking opportunities, like the Master's program, are very important".
As soft skills were useful to break the ice among participants and bring home new insights for growth, the lectures about Kirey Group's extensive offerings captured the students’ attention as well. Each of the business lines presented its structure and area of expertise, helping to draw a complete overview of the Kirey world. "Although this part of the training was focused on very specific areas, such as Cloud, Testing or DevOps", commented Francesca, "even for my role as HR it was very useful, especially to have a more solid and in-depth foundation for recruiting technicians”.
"I found fantastic the opportunity to interact with senior colleagues who presented their areas during the face-to-face lectures". adds Matteo. "They were available to give advice even after the lecture was over, via e-mail or Teams. It was an inspirational and mentoring opportunity that I took advantage of to compare and start imagining possible career developments within Kirey Group”.
The balance of the first year is, therefore, certainly positive: the apprentices embarked on a challenging training course that, on the one hand, led them to a deeper knowledge of the company and, on the other, pushed them to work on soft skills and their personal branding. But what awaits them in the next two years of the course? Expectations are high but, in general, they are in the groove of the path already taken together in 2022: "I would like to continue participating in classes that propose interactive modes and group work", comments Tommaso, "at the end of the course I expect to have acquired an important body of knowledge, but also to have grown on a personal level”. Francesca shares the same opinion and adds, "In the future it would be nice to meet in person, share a day of lectures and a lunch together, to consolidate the relationship among us also live". In short, the group looks forward to the start of the new teaching cycle, scheduled for January 2023.
Choosing a single adjective to describe this experience, for the five young professionals, was not easy. But, as it always happens when it comes the time to synthesize, personal and distinctive approaches emerged, and together they paint a true picture of all that the Master's program has meant in these months. There are the pragmatists: Francesco, who calls it "interesting," because of the notions and insights learned, and Tommaso, who chooses "useful," because of the amount of new knowledge he has already managed to put into practice; then there are who let enthusiasm prevail, Matteo: for him, the Master's course has been "captivating," a unique experience that has opened up new professional and life scenarios. And finally, the creatives: for Giacomo, this first year was "warm”, because he found with colleagues and teachers "a warm harmony" that created an ideal environment for learning new things; finally, for Francesca, the Master's program was "colorful", because it allowed her to get to know all the nuances of the company, especially of the people who shared this path and to understand and value their uniqueness.
And now, all that remains is to wait for the start of the new year, to find out what surprises the Master's Program in Digital Transformation will have in store for Kirey Group apprentices in 2023.
See you in the classroom!