Graduate Career & Skills Development

SoftBank University aims to foster personnel who will contribute to achieving the SoftBank Group Corporate Philosophy. To that end, it offers all SoftBank Group employees opportunities to share their ambitions and learn together, spurring each other on.
SoftBank University offers three programs: the SoftBank Business Program, the Seniority-Based Program, and the Next-Generation Management Personnel Program. It respects the diversity that will be a source of sustained growth for the Group and aims to foster personnel who demonstrate a wealth of individuality.

We also offer the training courses and schemes below catering to different positions or roles.

During the period between prospective employees receiving their job offers and actually starting at the company we help them to learn more about work, aiming to boost their motivation to join SoftBank and enable them to ease smoothly into their lives as working adults.
We offer e-learning courses to help them understand SoftBank’s history, brand, and business etiquette, and acquire business skills such as the ability to use Excel.
In addition, we hold events such as round-table discussions with people already working at the company to allow the prospective new recruits to hear at first hand about how the employees go about their work.
Prospective employees are also eligible for financial help (i.e., payment of examination fees and/or partial funding of tuition) to acquire specific qualifications.

We conduct training for all new recruits together for the first two weeks or so after they join the company.
Engineer-track recruits then go on to take around three more weeks of training. During these first two to five weeks they are expected to make the transition to a working adult’s mindset while learning about business etiquette and document preparation, as well as work-related computer skills, and thinking skills.
This is followed by a series of practical exercises that cover the process from coming up with a new plan through to presentation.
The training, which includes multiple exercises, is designed to be a first step in helping recruits become a businesspeople who can learn proactively and take action.

For engineer-track recruits and other new recruits whose assigned departments require specialist knowledge, we conduct technical training for approximately three weeks following the core training.
During the training they learn about networks, including the telecommunications setup and LAN architecture, as well as the basics with regard to topics such as security, the systems development process, and programming.

New recruits are supported by assigning them a mentor who provides OJT (on-the-job training) and maintains close communication on a day-to-day basis to help the new employee get used to the organization and take charge of their own work as soon as possible.

We conduct follow-up training for employees in their second year after joining the company as new graduates. One aim of the training is for trainees to reexamine themselves objectively and understand what they have learned to do during their first year in the company, as well as what challenges they must overcome to be able to work independently in future.
Other aims are to enable trainees to learn the skills required in the second year and to boost their motivation when tackling subsequent work.

The training for young employees in their third year after joining the company as new graduates allows trainees to look back at their experiences since joining and reevaluate their own strengths and the roles required of them.
Trainees focus on the person they want to be and identify the challenges they must overcome, using this as the basis to take action. They also learn the skills required in the third year. In addition to boosting motivation, the training also helps trainees to take practical action.

The SoftBank Group further improved its training system by launching the Internally Certified Instructor (ICI) system in June 2009.
The aim of this system is to provide personnel development and training that conveys the realities in the workplace and has an immediate impact by enabling like-minded employees to act as instructors providing training that reflects their own insight, knowledge, and experience.
Because these employees provide training on specialist knowledge used in the work they perform on a day-to-day basis, trainees are able to learn extremely practical information, such as, for example, when a Finance Group employee teaches other employees about the basics of financial accounting.
This system allows training based on actual work requirements and enables us to raise basic standards and boost levels of attainment across the entire workforce.

• ※ICI：Internally Certified Instructor

We offer the SoftBank Group’s own distinctive learning style, making full use of ICT by employing formats such as videolink training that simultaneously connects instructors to multiple remote training venues, as well as online training that connects trainees and instructors in distant locations, livestreaming of lectures, and streaming of archived videos. Individual employees can take steps to improve their skills whenever and wherever they choose.

Knowledge Marche was started in July 2013 to provide opportunities for employee-originated learning aimed at fostering a culture of mutual education. Employees sharing knowledge are referred to as organizers, while those taking part are called participants, and they learn together on an equal basis.
The scheme allows any employee with knowledge or insight to become an organizer, and goes beyond the traditional training approach to promote the sharing of knowledge and insights through small-group study sessions, workshops, lecture meetings, and more.

We offer SoftBank’s own business statistics test and IT test, aiming to make employees aware of their statistical capabilities and IT skills—which are necessary to adapt to changes in our business—and to enhance those skills.
Employees can assess their skills using SoftBank’s own original test questions, developed and editorially supervised by experts inside and outside the company.

• ※Testing has no bearing whatsoever on performance appraisals or other evaluation of employees.