For early-career advancement professionals, relationships can build career foundations and unlock opportunities. During the past 50 years, generations of advancement professionals have found these relationships through CASE.

The Graduate Trainee Program is one of several CASE opportunities designed to help early-career professionals develop skills for a career in advancement. Launched by CASE’s Europe office in 2009, the GTP places recent graduates at voluntary CASE member institutions for a yearlong work placement. Throughout the year, graduate trainees are supported by CASE through training, conferences, and mentorship. The program started with funding from the U.K. government’s Matched Funding Scheme for Higher Education, which aimed to boost fundraising activity within the sector.

Three objectives guided the program, says Lyndsay Lewis, who the CASE Europe team brought on as a talent management consultant. CASE looked to bring in top talent and both publicize and professionalize higher education fundraising as a career path.

Over time, CASE developed more structure to the program, including mentoring trainees through reviewing goals and objectives and talking through their challenges, says Lewis, who acted as liaison between the Europe-based host institutions, trainees, and CASE.

“I wanted the trainees to walk away with genuine commitment and motivation to make a difference to the sector … to feel inspired and excited, and confident that they can move into a role that’s going to be fulfilling,” says Lewis.

CASE expanded the GTP to the U.S. and Asia-Pacific regions, giving newcomers to the profession across the globe the opportunity to participate.

Meet six individuals—both GTP participants and the advancement professions who worked with them during the program—who built relationships that opened doors and helped them thrive in their careers.
 

Two Trainees Make a Perfect Match

Georgia Willmot remembers meeting Jackie Yip, who would be her interim manager for her first months in the GTP, on her first day at Cardiff University.

“I had never been to Cardiff before, and I thought, ‘Oh, it’s August. It’s going to be a nice day.’ I show up and it starts pouring rain. Jackie lent me an umbrella and [joked] to invest in some good waterproofs. … I could tell straight away that she was passionate about her work, and that was inspiring to see as my first impression. [I remember] thinking, ‘Oh, I’m in an environment of people that really care about what they’re doing.”