COLM:

Colm Lynch

Degree: MA Hons Supply Chain Management, University College Dublin
Joined Stagecoach: 2006
Current position: Assistant Operations Manager, Newcastle

“Having attended a number of graduate recruitment events with the main passenger transport companies in the UK, I distinctly remember that the interaction between existing graduate trainees and managers at the Stagecoach recruitment centre was quite upbeat and positive, with some good banter and conversations taking place. I thought at the time “this is the sort of environment that I want to be in when I start work.” One year on, the first impressions have held.

The Stagecoach programme allows graduates to get a rounded feel for the business, as opposed to working in one specific area. I’ve opted for the route of operations management.

One of the first impressions upon starting my first year on the programme was “how on earth am I expected to be able to do a manager’s job in just one year’s time?” After a year of doing every job in the depot in Cambridge and attending numerous training courses, I can safely say that I was well prepared for the challenges that my 2nd year posting in Newcastle would bring. To use the old cliché, no two days in the jobs are the same.

The graduate management programme’s objective is to develop Stagecoach’s future managers and directors. Given the amount of investment, ( financial and management time ), put into training graduate trainees over the course of my first year, I have absolutely no doubt about Stagecoach’s commitment to the successful development of graduate trainees.

The graduates trainees who have just completed the two year programme now all manage their own depots / engineering operations, whilst 3 previous graduate trainees have already become directors. Next year I expect to run my own depot, which could mean managing anything up to several hundred people! What other graduate development programme could develop such skills and deliver this level of responsibility so quickly?"