Across the UK and Ireland you'll have the opportunity to reach your full potential with FirstGroup, whether in our bus or rail divisions or our Corporate Centre.
Each of our brand companies offers training and development opportunities to help you grow in your role and beyond. And because we're a multi-brand business, development opportunities aren't restricted to the company you join.
So if you want to progress your career, you've a choice of over 15 different brands to choose from for your next step.
Additionally, we offer development programmes for individuals from groups that may be under-represented in management or leadership positions.
We have some examples below, of our leadership and development programmes offered in our businesses right now.
ascent is the brand we've created to house all our Group-level development programmes. How far you go on your journey, on your ascent, is up to you. At First we give you the opportunities to take part in personal development programmes that unlock your potential, build your confidence, and get you ready to take that next step.
Our ascent UP programme is designed for colleagues who belong to groups that are under-represented in manager and leadership roles, specifically women, ethnically diverse men and women, those who identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and those who identify as neurodiverse or living with a disability.
The programme aims to build the capabilities and confidence of colleagues who have the aspiration to move into their first people management role in the next 12-18 months.
Delivered over a 3-month period, the programme consists of 3 one-day workshops and the content includes:
Our ascent FORWARD programme is designed for colleagues who belong to groups that are under-represented in manager and leadership roles, specifically women, ethnically diverse men and women, those who identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and those who identify as neurodiverse or living with a disability.
The programme aims to build the capabilities and confidence of colleagues who have experience of line management and have the aspiration to move into a ‘Head of’ level or equivalent role within the next 1-2 years.
Delivered over a 4-month period, the programme comprises two 2-day face-to-face workshops and the content includes:
Our ascent ACCELERATE programme is designed for colleagues who belong to groups that are under-represented in senior leadership roles, specifically women, ethnically diverse men and women, those who identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and those who identify as neurodiverse or living with a disability. It aims to build the capability of colleagues for senior level or executive level roles within FirstGroup.
Delegates are likely to already hold “Head of” or equivalent level roles and have been recognised through the talent management process, already demonstrating high performance and high potential to move into larger and more complex leadership positions.
The programme will be shaped by the requirements of the attendees and will:
The programme includes the following:
To support our Leaders with the transformation at First Bus, we have developed a leading-edge Leadership Development programme which we’ve called ‘Leadership Lab’ with the aim of significantly improve our leadership capabilities and enabling us to be fit for the future.
Leadership Lab has been designed with our partners at EYLane4 to equip the First Bus leadership population with models, concepts, practical case-studies and some leading-edge management theory across the core modules of, ‘leading self’, ‘leading people’ and ‘leading transformation’.
It’s called Leadership Lab as our leaders be experimenting with new concepts in a safe environment before putting these new skills to the test and learning from the results.
Through a wide-ranging and multi-channel programme of delivery including, 360-degree feedback, immersive face-to-face off-site leadership training, peer-to-peer action learning, coaching from external facilitators, external expert virtual masterclasses and leadership exchanges with external organisations, First Bus ‘Leadership Lab’ will allow our leaders to be in the best shape possible to deliver the First Bus strategy.
First connections was launched in January 2024 and is our advocate network for colleagues who have completed one of our ascent positive action, personal development programmes.
It is a growing network (of around 550 colleagues in April 2024) that continues to provide peer support and challenge and an opportunity to continue learning from others, as well as an opportunity to carry on creating the connections that were made during the programme. First connections bridges the gap between ending a programme and securing the next role and acts as a peer support network to champion confidence and give courage to step forward and up.
