Skills and development

Download our impact report 2023 (17MB)

We want to give our people the opportunities to develop in their chosen field. We encourage everyone to develop the skills and gain the experiences to realise their full potential. We help our colleagues to discover and define their ambitions whilst also providing opportunities to make them happen.

How we have performed

New opportunities

We promote internal mobility and encourage our colleagues to find new opportunities to develop their careers and capabilities. Serco UK & Europe have created Contract Manager peer communities, based on revenue and complexity, enabling us to introduce career pathways for Contract Managers, peer-to-peer learning, and direct engagement with the Divisional Executive Leadership Team. This has helped positively impact Viewpoint engagement for UK & Europe Contract Managers, which has increased by 5pts.

Colleague programmes

In 2023, Serco North America launched two new colleague programmes, intentionally designed to strengthen colleague experience, forge new connections and help promising careers to flourish: 'SercoSpark' and 'SercoRising'. SercoSpark supports new colleagues through their first 12 months in Serco, with guidance from a SercoSpark Ambassador. It is built around first-year milestones, tools and resources, with fresh emphasis on the manager role in supporting the new colleague introduction to Serco. Meanwhile, SercoRising is Serco's new 'early career' network, designed for new generations of colleagues. With Serco North America CFO, Gordon Foster, as Executive Sponsor, SercoRising is fostering relationships and curating resources to engage and support younger colleagues, helping them grow, thrive, and have an impact. Together, these new programmes are enabling new and early career colleagues discover their place and path at Serco. Find out more.

Our colleague Rebecca Blockley, Senior Project Manager at the Serco-operated Dovegate Prison, was honoured as a finalist by the UK Festival of Learning in 2023, selected from hundreds of nominations for the impact of her 'Restart Dog' project in the prison. Through the programme, prisoners are taught to become 'assistance dog' trainers. As well as benefiting from the opportunity to gain a qualification, working with the dogs has been shown to improve learners’ mental health and relationships with prison staff whilst also helping participating inmates to develop a stronger sense of responsibility. Find out more.

Apprenticeship programmes

In the UK, we provide apprenticeship programmes across various sectors. 814 apprentices engaged with the program of which 137 completed it in 2023. The majority are on management and leadership apprenticeships. In North America, WayUp recognised Serco as one of its Top 100 for Internship Programs.

Our Defence Marine Support Services (DMSS) colleagues in Australia have worked with the Sea Heritage Foundation – who run a training course enabling First Nations students to obtain a Certificate 1 in Maritime Operations – to provide further training for course graduates within Serco DMSS, helping them on their journey to become professional maritime masters and engineers. Find out more.

Reducing vacancies and improving retention

We continue to focus on reducing vacancy numbers and improving retention. Activities have included global careers page updates; deployment of global career campaign QR code posters across Contracts, aimed at front line colleagues career opportunities; and a project to improve the candidate experience and simplify the application process for internal candidates.

Supporting young people

Since 2019, we have hosted 53 'Project SEARCH' interns at Forth Valley Royal Hospital, UK. Project SEARCH is a 'transition to employment' programme for young people with learning disabilities and autism. We recently launched Project SEARCH at Great Western Hospital as well, welcoming nine interns in 2023. Find out more.

We are proud of our Citizen Services colleagues in Lincolnshire, UK, who received the British Association for Supported Employment 'Social Value of the Year Award' in 2023. Our colleagues maintain a rich and varied programme of Social Value generation; it was their education and employability support for schools and students with special educational needs and disabilities that stood at the forefront of their nomination from our customer. In this, they have supported educational establishments in Greater Lincolnshire, engaging c.1,000 students, while also delivering an employability mentoring programme helping students with additional needs to develop skills, build confidence and find work. Find out more.

Development programmes

In the Middle East, we provide a suite of development programmes that support the progression of national employees throughout their career, with targeted programmes spanning their time as a student through to future leaders within Serco. This includes Muwazana, a part-time programme for female nationals to balance work and home life, and Fursati, providing local young female talent with internship opportunities.

In 2023, Serco Middle East launched its new Graduate Space Programme, successfully recruiting an inaugural cohort of young national engineers. This followed the launch of our new Middle East Space Division, based in KSA. The space-specific graduate programme – the first of its kind in KSA and Serco – is the first phase in ensuring the transfer of operational knowledge and capabilities to young engineers and scientists in KSA. Taking up exciting new graduate 'Spacecraft Operations Engineer' and 'Space Data Engineer' roles, our new colleagues will benefit from on-the-job training in placements at space facilities in Europe. Find out more.

What next

Drive internal promotions beyond 50%.
Launch a Future Leaders Programme for under-represented groups.
Global Career Campaigns for People Leaders to be rolled out, including Job Shop refresh.