The team behind peer-topeer learning forum Elite Leaders is launching a programme to bring new consultants into the recruitment industry and train them.

Recruits to the Elite Academy will embark on a seven-month ‘earn as you learn’ programme offering 10 days of classroom orientation and instruction.

Normal workdays will be spent working in recruitment firms where each will be placed. “They’ll arrive with a user manual,” Elite managing director John O’Sullivan told Recruiter.

Between classroom sessions, candidates will be supported with online guidance. Selection to the Academy will be based on the results of an assessment centre. “At the end of the seven months, we’ll have a fully rounded, 360-degree recruitment consultant,” O’Sullivan said. “We want this to be a de facto way into the industry.”

O’Sullivan told Recruiter that the need for an academy of this kind stemmed primarily from the continuing need for greater professionalisation of the recruitment industry.

However, he said he also feared that the current recession will put a halt to proactive recruitment of talented newcomers to the industry. In addition, he predicted that “as an industry, I think we’re going to lose a lot of great talent”.

When the economy rebounds, recruitment firms will then lack the right talent to handle the service demands, he said.

Firms interested in having the services of an Academy student will be vetted by the Elite Academy organisers to ensure they provide the right environment to promote and encourage learning, O’Sullivan said. Only companies that belong to Elite Leaders will be eligible to participate.

The cost to participating employers will be £1,000 a month, which will include the opportunity to ‘replace’ a candidate at no charge if the one assigned does not work out. “There will be fallouts,” O’Sullivan acknowledged.

There will be no charge to the students themselves for their academy studies.

“We think our maximum capacity will be 100 [students] a year,” O’Sullivan said.