Building a better developer
It is far more common to find developers who have potential; developers who express an inquisitive, learning-based personality. These developers really want to make a difference in their own lives and in the lives of others. They may not understand relational databases yet but they're honestly willing to learn. They bring an enthusiasm to the learning process that energizes the people around them.

In most organizations this enthusiasm is squashed in the name of conformity. A mentality of "We've always done it that way" squeezes out any attempt to try to do things better. As a result developers are often left confused between the statement that the organization wants a world class development team (every organization wants this) and the reality that they're unwilling to change to get there.

However, there are things you can do to ensure that this drive and desire doesn't get squashed out of new developers. Here are a few tips to starting the process of building a better developer.

Mentoring--Assign a mentor to help the developer. This person should be a senior developer, development leader, or architect who is concerned with improving the team, the processes, and in helping others. This should not be the developer's direct supervisor or manager (if possible). The mentoring conversations should be focused around what the developer wants--not what the organization wants or needs.
Code reviews--Code reviews are an effective way to move someone's knowledge of development forward in a positive direction. They're done too infrequently in most organizations. In addition they're rarely approached as an opportunity for learning. They are instead an opportunity to bash the developers. Do code reviews and approach them as a way to train and educate rather than to beat down.
Progressive experience--Provide meaningful incremental assignments for developers to foster their growth. This is perhaps the most difficult tip to implement since we have minimal control on the incoming projects. However, providing as much structure as possible around progressive assignments will pay off in the long run.