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&lt;p&gt;You&#39;ve seen it in the headlines: companies are hiring, but not you. They need highly skilled engineers and technicians, not law students, consultants, or liberal arts majors.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you think this is frustrating for you, take solace in the fact that it&#39;s equally exasperating for the companies. Some can only afford to offer prospective (skilled) workers &quot;lower pay than what they made 15 years ago,&quot; according the president of a manufacturing company. He was quoted in the Washington Post along with anxious employers in software, healthcare, and the auto industry.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But some companies, including IBM, GE, and most recently, SAP have taken matters into their own hands with training programs of their own. Much like an MBA program, the &quot;schools&quot; feature formal classroom education, and follow similar curriculum, like studying business models. The difference is that the &quot;teachers&quot; are future coworkers, mentors are future bosses, and, if all goes well, students are future employees.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We spoke with Rebecca Sherrill, vice president of SAP North America Value University, to get the scoop on SAP&#39;s program, and why a similar education might be just the jumpstart your career could use:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. You&#39;re an &quot;investment&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Internships are a great way to get your foot in the door at a company, but (especially when they&#39;re unpaid,) the company doesn&#39;t really have much incentive to train you. You&#39;re just as valuable when you fetch coffee as when you perform a slightly higher level task, especially while you&#39;re working for free.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Corporate &quot;graduate academies,&quot; however, hand pick students based on talent and fit, and guarantee them a position at the company post-graduation. Translation: the depth of your success, experience, and training are a return on the company&#39;s investment. Thus, as Sherill puts it, &quot;A primary goal of the Graduate Academy is to develop a well-rounded professional.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So what does that mean, exactly?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Well, aside from the actual nuts and bolts of job training, it means there&#39;s also guidance on &quot;executive presence, presentation skills, selling skills, research &amp;amp; analysis, financial acumen, business etiquette,&quot; and notes on company culture. If only you could get that kind of cheat sheet for your other interviews!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. The experience is real&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wish you could test drive a job before accepting it? Corporate training might be for you—especially on a &quot;rotational model.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;A distinct advantage&quot; of her program, says Sherrill, &quot;is the opportunity to learn the business of SAP and go beyond business school theory to actual immersion in key business areas,&quot; which means getting to sample several sides of the business, from the inside out.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Work assignments are &quot;significantly more complex and strategic than typical internships&quot; and working on them often involves cooperating with actual executive leadership—your future bosses and coworkers--not just classmates, as in an MBA program.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And forget the hypothetical business models and situations: class exercises will most likely involve &quot;exposure to high level business initiatives&quot; says Sherrill.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thus, 10 months of training is comparable to your first 10 months on the job: you&#39;ll get a feel for culture, a taste of the daily grind, and full immersion in way the company does business. Score.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. …and so are the relationships&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It can be hard to learn from coworkers on the job, since they&#39;re often your competition—or they&#39;re just too busy to coach you if they wanted to.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A major plus to built-in corporate training program is that it often tasks employees with nurturing new prospects as part of their job. At SAP, for example, &quot;leaders&quot; are responsible for different &quot;immersion&quot; units (sections in which students learn one particular side of business), and are &quot;accountable for the success of the graduates who rotate through his/her organization,&quot; says Sherrill.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Part of that leader&#39;s job is also to assign mentors, and it&#39;s those mentors who personally give students assignments. They also &quot;monitor their work, and assess their performance,&quot; according to Sherrill, for a supported but also fully accountable experience.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The help doesn&#39;t stop when you finish the program, either. According to Sherrill, &quot;each graduate will have an assigned mentor (a tenured SAP employee) and a buddy (a peer for addressing day-to-day questions)&quot; to ease the transition into the workplace and provide &quot;ongoing support, encouragement, career advice, and problem resolution.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That can really take the trauma out of your first week, from the bull pen to the cafeteria.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. You can see if a career is for you—first hand&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Beginning with the rigorous application process, many corporate programs, SAP included, seek to inform would-be students as much as possible about the program and company--and weed out those it&#39;s not right for.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sherrill notes that SAP takes care to inform prospects, hosting informational webinars for interested applicants, then having them &quot;screened by SAP recruiters and ultimately interviewed by 3-4 tenured SAP employees from the various lines of business.&quot; Whew.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you make it into the 10-month program, you&#39;ll then &quot;rotate&quot; through different lines of business within the company, test driving different fields, teams, and positions. The immersion experience (separated into four 10-week sessions) allows students to perform many functions of the day-to-day job, through shadowing employees.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Experiences can include, according to Sherrill, the opportunity to &quot;interact with customers, attend internal strategy meetings, and sometimes spend time with North America executive leadership.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In other words, you&#39;ll get the most realistic simulations possible as you try your hand at many fields--all without committing to any one.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And if the company&#39;s not for you at all? You don&#39;t need to stay just because you completed the program—you can walk at any time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Would you ever try a corporate training program like SAP&#39;s? Have you? If so, what did you think of the experience? Tell us in the comments!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;--Cathy Vandewater, Vault.com&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Read More:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/executives-cite-uncertain-us-economic-outlook-skills-gap-as-barriers-to-hiring/2012/08/03/543dbe18-ddb8-11e1-8ad1-909913931f71_story.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Executives cite uncertain US economic outlook, skills gap as barriers to hiring&lt;/a&gt; (The Washington Post)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/job-search/3-sneaky-ways-to-neuromarket-for-a-job/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Find Their Pain! How to &quot;Neuromarket&quot; for a Job&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/networking/attracting-recruiters-lessons-from-sun-tzu/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Attracting Recruiters: Lessons from Sun Tzu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Cathy Vandewater

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