The Capacity Uplift Solution Program runs for 12 months as our experience has shown that this is the ideal length for participants to have sufficient ​opportunity to develop personally, professionally and technically.

Capacity Uplift Solutions Program (CUSP) is designed to place participants in client organisations that demonstrate the ability ​to grow and develop their professional abilities and technical skills. After completing the 12-month training program, ​participants will be suited for potential full-time employment as a tenured employee or contractor.

In addition to the regular mentoring sessions every two weeks, all Capacity Uplift Solution Program participants attend sessions delivered by our Principal ​Program Manager on topics such as: stakeholder engagement, ethical behaviour and effective presentations.

Participants will be required to undertake a technical training program tailored to the role that they have been recruited for ​and attend 10 monthly group professional development sessions of 3 hours conducted by registered psychologists.

These ses​s​ions cover deep dives into the development of skills in critical thinking, problem-solving, time management, conflict r​esolution and similar topics. All members of the cohort are required to attend these sessions so they can participate in group exercises.

12 months is a relatively short time when the aim is for each individual to gain full-time employment as a tenured employee or ​contractor at the end of the program.

The Leaders IT team, responsible for designing the Capacity Uplift Solution Program, brings extensive experience in developing and delivering similar ​programs across large enterprises, professional associations, and tertiary education institutions. The consensus of those ​involved in developing the program was that shorter courses, that covered similar material, often leads to unsatisfactory ​outcomes for both individual participants and hiring organisations.

And the results speak for themselves. As of June 2024, around 90% of those entering the Program have been offered full-time ​employment as a tenured employee or contractor at the end of the 12 months.

The Capacity Uplift Solution Program is designed to work with and develop a wide range of participants. We have principally concentrated on recent ​graduates, those transitioning from other career paths to IT and people returning to the workforce seeking to establish ​themselves as IT professionals.

Additionally, we look to enrich the IT industry by encouraging the participation of traditionally underrepresented talent: those ​who identify as female, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and the LGBTQIA+ community. Recently, a number ​of our successful program participants have been neurodivergent and Leaders IT is proactively seeking to create more opportuniti​es for participants on the neurodiversity spectrum​.

Our Capacity Uplift Solution Program participants are organised into cohorts to receive their training and mentorship. A cohort generally comprises ​between 5-8 participants who can be from different organisations or the same organisation. A cohort will have a mentor who ​will engage in 1:1 in-person mentoring with each participant every two weeks for around an hour each.

The mentoring follows a program tailored to the participant’s role in the hiring organisation to ensure that they are delivering ​and deriving value from their training. Having small cohorts ensures that our mentors can establish a strong personal ​relationship with each of their mentees and, having fostered trust, are best equipped to serve their individual needs and development.

It ​a​lso means that once we have filled a cohort, we can begin taking the successful candidates on their Capacity Uplift Solution Program journey. We are not ​bound to hard start dates, and we therefore have rolling cohorts running simultaneously at any one time. Generally, this enab​les us to ensure that our hiring organisations are not required to wait for a cohort to be formed and start.

The final choice of participant is always made by the client organisation. Our experienced client support representative will ​provide a shortlist of program candidates that align with the specified required role. If required, we are also able to provide ​psychometric testing to support the selection processes.

The Capacity Uplift Solution Program provides a tailored training plan developed in partnership with your hiring manager ensuring that participants develop ​all the skills required for a nominated role over the 12-month program. The accelerated professional development and ​technical training also enable participants to quickly become conversant in your organisation and thus begin adding value at a ​very early stage.

If at the end of the program, your organisation wishes to retain the program participant, Leaders IT will offer them at a ​competitive rate, offering an easy and economical way to augment your workforce without having to recruit and onboard a ​new member of your team.

Our experience is that most organisations wish to offer Capacity Uplift Solution Program participants ongoing employment.

However, over 12 months, we acknowledge that circumstances do change and that it may not be possible to take on a person ​at the end of the program. One great feature of the program is that Leaders IT is the employer of the participant placed at your organisation, so you are under no obligation to convert the participant at the end of the program and participants can instead ​be added to our talent pool and available to be contracted to other organisations.

Absolutely. Client organisation hiring managers or representatives will first meet with the Leaders IT mentor to discuss the ​training needs of each participant and develop a detailed training plan that ensures the training meets organisational needs.

Our Leaders IT mentors will arrange to meet with the client organisation for around 30-40mins every 6 weeks to discuss any ​issues that arise. Should something arise that needs to be discussed in between the six weekly meetings, the mentor is ​generally available to be contacted, and where that is not possible, any queries can be directed to the leadership team at ​Leaders IT.

Our standard contract allows for the termination of the contract with one 1 month’s notice. 

Our experience is that since the ​incept of our Capacity Uplift Solution Program this very rarely needed to be exercised, given the diligence of our shortlisting process and the proactive ​involvement of the hiring organisation in making the final selection.