About the Graduate Development Program (GDP)
Turner & Townsend’s GDP provides you with a structured learning environment that supports you to become a well-rounded consultant in order to help you accelerate your career as far and fast as possible.
The GDP is designed to be:
- a platform to enhance knowledge and gain first-hand experience
- a training schedule to support and capture your learning and development needs and achievements
- a learning tool document to track and report the development of your capabilities.
As a GDP participant, you will be provided with a development path that is not only aligned to our internal competency frameworks, but also supports professional development and qualifications, including RICS, APM, CIOB and ICE. This will help you and your manager monitor and plan your learning needs to enable ongoing progress and growth.
The 24-month GDP incorporates a training program that will provide you with technical and behavioral training to enhance your knowledge and skills.
Program areas
The four programs outlined below call for a range of skills and professional approaches. Whether you relish the day-to-day challenges of project management, possess the precision and communication demands of project controls, appreciate the complexity of cost management, or want to help drive future innovation within the industry, the challenge is there.
Project management
Project managers are responsible for day-to-day management of a project. They must be competent in managing the six aspects of a project: scope, schedule, finance, risk, quality, and resources. Project managers work on specific projects that have definite outcomes and deal with the constraints of deadlines and budgets.
We work with clients on the world’s biggest construction projects and no two projects are ever the same. Project managers apply their technical skills in collaborative environments. It is here that we promote innovation and efficiency to really add value and make the difference. It’s this unique combination of skills that make Turner & Townsend project management one of the most exciting roles in the business.
Controls and performance
Project controls uses integrated time and cost analysis to measure project performance and predict future outcomes. A project controller works with the project manager to define objectives, analyze progress, and manage the performance of an entire project. Working with the project team, the project controller recommends actions to be taken, to improve progress and ensure success.
The discipline encompasses schedule development, budgeting, and cost control, earned value management, risk management and change control. Project controls integrates these functions to report accurately on the status of the project and future predictions. This information is used to influence project decision-making. Project controls offers the opportunity to influence a project’s success at a high level and play a critical part in delivering a project to meet business needs.
Cost and commercial management
Cost and commercial managers are responsible for delivering best value from construction projects across real estate, infrastructure, and natural resources sectors. A career in cost and commercial management offers a great balance of work before and during construction.
At inception, we use our strategic skills to support the client during the business case phase to define the target cost for the facility. Prior to the construction phase of a project the role involves estimating costs, working with architects to improve the affordability of design, procuring suppliers for the build phase, and placing contracts. The construction phase is about controlling the cost to original budget, working closely with the client and project team to deliver a successful project.
Data and technology
Data and technology enables all functional groups to perform to their full potential. A data and technology specialist works collaboratively with internal and external team members to gather, organize, store, analyze, model, and report on insights that can help the organization deliver faster and more effective outcomes. A career in data applies to a wide variety of industries and is essential in driving organizations to make more data-driven decisions. This discipline encompasses working with tools and processes that can allow for the automation of data and insights. Data and technology employs principles such as data structure, data preparation, data analysis, and data visualization to help provide organizations with descriptive analytics to inform on current and past performance. These principles can help automate repetitive tasks and make the flow of data more efficient and readily available. This discipline is about effectively communicating data-driven results to create a tangible impact across any organization or industry.
What are our participants saying about the GDP?
Talk to our people and you’ll find that no two stories are the same. However, they will all talk about the unique opportunity to develop their careers and work on exciting projects. They will also tell you about a work culture that is driven by an emphasis on learning and nurtured by a culture of professional support that runs from top to bottom of our business.
Not all of our graduates join us with construction-related qualifications. You may have a degree in engineering, law, marketing, or music. It doesn’t matter. We can teach you all of the professional skills that you will need. It’s your unique qualities that we are most interested in.
Work hard, apply yourself, and learn. You’ll soon find that a career with Turner & Townsend can be very rewarding.
© 2024 Turner & Townsend