TA Foundations
Starting out in Talent Acquisition? Start with the foundations.
Talent Acquisition is a profession that requires a broad range of skills – from understanding the employment market and attracting candidates through to interviewing, assessment, employment law, technology, offers and onboarding.
Yet many people enter their first Talent Acquisition role with little or no formal recruitment training.
Those new to TA may understand one part of the process, but not yet understand how the entire recruitment lifecycle fits together, what good practice looks like, or the role TA plays in supporting Hiring Managers and the organisation.
The TAAA TA Foundations Program has been specifically designed for people who are new to Talent Acquisition and recruitment.
Delivered as four live online half-day sessions over four weeks, the program provides a practical introduction to the end-to-end recruitment lifecycle and the core knowledge and skills every new TA practitioner needs to get started.
Course at a Glance
Duration: 4 Half-Day Sessions | 1 half day session per week
Program Length: 4 Weeks
Delivery: Live Online
Content: 20 Practical Learning Modules
Experience Level: Foundation / Entry Level
Designed for: People new to Talent Acquisition and Recruitment
Eligibility: TAAA Members Only
Is TA Foundations right for you?
TA Foundations is specifically designed for people at the beginning of their Talent Acquisition career.
You don’t need years of recruitment experience. In fact, you don’t need recruitment experience at all.
The program assumes participants are relatively new to the profession and builds their understanding progressively — starting with how recruitment works and the role of TA, before moving through attraction, shortlisting, interviewing, assessment, compliance, technology, offers and onboarding.
It is particularly suitable for new TA Coordinators, Recruitment Coordinators, Junior Recruiters and TA Specialists, HR professionals moving into recruitment, agency recruiters transitioning into internal TA, graduates beginning a career in TA or HR, and employees who have recently taken on recruitment responsibilities
Why TA Foundations?
Starting a new career in Talent Acquisition can be daunting.
There are systems to learn, legislation to understand, Hiring Managers to support, candidates to manage and recruitment processes to follow — often while trying to fill vacancies from day one.
TA Foundations gives new practitioners a structured grounding in the profession, helping them understand not just what they need to do, but why good recruitment practice matters.
For employers, it provides a consistent way to bring new TA team members up to speed rather than relying entirely on learning by observation, internal processes or trial and error.
Benefits for Participants
Participants will build an understanding of the entire recruitment lifecycle and greater confidence in carrying out the everyday activities expected of a TA practitioner.
They will learn the language of Talent Acquisition, understand the respective roles of TA and Hiring Managers, develop practical recruitment skills and gain exposure to contemporary topics including employer branding, social media, D&I, AI and recruitment technology.
Importantly, participants will begin to understand what good recruitment practice looks like — providing a foundation they can continue to build on as their career develops.
Benefits for Employers
The TA Foundations Program provides organisations with a structured way to accelerate the development of new and junior members of their Talent Acquisition team.
The program can help organisations build more consistent foundational capability, reduce the time required for managers to teach basic recruitment concepts, improve the confidence of new practitioners, reinforce structured and compliant recruitment practices, improve candidate and Hiring Manager experiences, and provide new TA professionals with a broader understanding of the profession beyond their own organisation’s processes.
It also creates a useful external development pathway for organisations that may only recruit one or two new TA team members at a time and therefore cannot justify running an entire in-house training program.
Program Overview
The program covers 20 modules across four half-day sessions, progressing through the recruitment lifecycle over four weeks.
Week 1 — Understanding TA & Attracting Talent
The Recruitment Marketplace
Understanding today’s employment market and the environment in which TA professionals operate.
The Role of TA & the Hiring Manager
Understanding the end-to-end recruitment process, where TA adds value and the respective responsibilities of TA and Hiring Manager
Taking a Great Recruitment Brief
How to understand the vacancy, business need, role requirements and candidate profile before going to market.
EVP & Employer Branding
Understanding Employee Value Proposition and Employer Brand and how they influence candidate attraction.
Writing Effective Recruitment Advertisements
Moving beyond the position description to create clear, engaging and candidate-focused recruitment advertising.
Week 2 — Candidate Attraction, Inclusion & Shortlisting
Candidate Attraction & Careers Websites
Understanding attraction channels, candidate journeys and the role of the organisation’s careers website.
Social Media in Recruitment
How social and professional platforms can support employer branding, attraction and candidate sourcing.
EEO & the Law in Recruitment
An introduction to the legal and Equal Employment Opportunity principles every recruiter should understand.
Unconscious Bias in Recruitment
Recognising how bias can influence recruitment decisions and understanding practical ways to reduce subjectivity.
Shortlisting Candidates
How to review applications against role requirements and develop a fairer, more structured approach to shortlisting.
These first two weeks draw directly from the attraction, advertising, careers website, social media, EEO, bias and shortlisting modules in your proposed program.
Week 3 — Interviewing, Assessment & Selection
Interviewing & Selection
Understanding the purpose and structure of an effective recruitment interview.
Different Question Types
Exploring behavioural, competency-based, situational, motivational and other interview question styles and when to use them
Other Assessment Methodologies
Understanding that interviews are only one form of candidate assessment and exploring other selection methods.
Scoring & Evaluating Candidates
Using structured criteria, evidence and scoring to support more consistent candidate decisions.
Psychometric Testing
An introduction to psychometric assessment, what different tests measure and how they may be used appropriately within recruitment.
These are the assessment-focused modules identified in the second half of your course outline.
Week 4 — Contemporary TA & Completing the Recruitment Process
AI & Technology in Recruitment
An introduction to how AI and technology are changing recruitment, including opportunities, limitations and ethical considerations
The Offer Process
Understanding the importance of managing the offer professionally and maintaining candidate engagement through to acceptance.
Verification Checks
Understanding the role of appropriate pre-employment and verification checks within the recruitment process.
Reference Checking
How reference checks contribute to the selection process and what recruiters should be seeking to verify.
Good Onboarding Practices
Understanding why recruitment doesn’t simply finish when the candidate accepts the offer and the role TA can play in creating an effective transition into the organisation.
This final stage completes the lifecycle using the AI, offer, verification, reference-checking and onboarding modules from your proposed content.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of the TA Foundations Program, participants will be able to:
- Explain the end-to-end recruitment lifecycle and the role of Talent Acquisition within it.
- Understand the respective roles of TA and the Hiring Manager.
- Take an effective recruitment brief and identify core role requirements.
- Understand the fundamentals of EVP, employer branding and candidate attraction.
- Write more effective recruitment advertisements.
- Understand how careers websites and social media support candidate attraction.
- Apply foundational EEO, legal, D&I and unconscious-bias principles to recruitment.
- Shortlist candidates using more structured and objective criteria.
- Understand structured interviewing, different question types and candidate assessment.
- Apply basic candidate evaluation and scoring techniques.
- Understand the appropriate role of psychometric and other assessment methodologies.
- Understand how AI and recruitment technology are changing Talent Acquisition.
- Understand the fundamentals of offers, verification and reference checking.
- Recognise the importance of good onboarding and candidate experience.
What's Included?
What’s Included?
Participants receive:
- Four live, facilitator – led online workshops
- 20 practical learning modules
- Comprehensive TA Foundations workbook
- Practical templates, checklists and resources
- Activities and real-world recruitment examples
- Opportunities for questions and discussion throughout the four weeks
- TAAA Certificate of Completion on successful completion of the program
- Access to the TAAA professional community as a member.
The two current programs already include the workbook and completion certificate, with the morning program providing pre-course EEO/law work and the afternoon program adding the HR Tech links/tools resource pack.
For TAAA Members Only
The TA Foundations Program is available exclusively to TAAA members.
This reflects the purpose of the program: to help develop the next generation of Talent Acquisition professionals while connecting people entering the industry with their professional association and broader TA community
Not yet a TAAA member?
How to Book
The program runs as a four-week online cohort, with new program dates scheduled throughout the year.