A business student working at Bristol-based firm Hargreaves Lansdown has said the paid internship scheme he is enrolled on could help make young black people feel "less intimidated" to pursue a career in professional industries like financial services.
Business Psychology undergraduate Oren Henry has begun a four-week internship within Hargreaves Lansdown (HL)'s external relations and government affairs department as part of the West of England Black Interns Pilot programme.
The initiative is seeking to improve the prospects of young people in the region’s black community, with 20 organisations offering placements to around 50 students across a range of sectors, including marketing, HR and digital marketing.
Participating organisations include chamber of commerce Business West, production company Plimsoll Productions and PR agency Ambitious.
The scheme has been launched by HL in partnership with Bristol City Council, and is a precursor to the national 10,000 Black Interns Programme, which will run next year with the involvement of more than 700 companies in 24 sectors.
It comes after analysis earlier this year by The Guardian of data from the Office for National Statistics suggested that young black British workers have been hit disproportionately hard by the pandemic.
More than 40% of black people aged 16-24 were unemployed between October and December 2020, more than three times the unemployment rate for white workers in the same age range.
Early into his internship with HL, Mr Henry, a Business Psychology undergraduate at Aston University in Birmingham and based in Fishponds, had been participating in marketing meetings, discussing organisational strategy with the firm's senior leaders and stakeholders.
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Mr Henry said: “What I’m trying to achieve is to gain more experience in a professional environment. Further than that I would like to build connections, and find some form of mentoring, whether that’s formal or informal.
“The internship has been amazing, I have really enjoyed it. I have been meeting people who have been really great to me, building new connections with professionals who are inspiring to me and who can help me as I move forward with my career as a graduate and beyond.”
Mr Henry highlighted the importance of initiatives like the West of England Black Interns scheme, saying they “massively contribute” to social mobility.
Mr Henry said: “It is important that these opportunities are offered to people who are of black origin. I think sometimes this industry can be a little bit intimidating for people.
“Where it’s not completely obvious opportunities are open to you, people look at those who are in the positions they would like to be in, and if they don’t look like them, sometimes it can feel as though that you have no place.
“I think schemes like this offer a new perspective on these organisations and a new understanding that there are places for people of black origin or who aren’t white, and that's very important.”
Mr Henry said that while he would not have been put off from pursuing a career in professional services without the support of a paid internship, he said many others would be.
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He said: “In the wider community there’s a lot of people who feel intimidated by organisations like HL and industries like financial services. Schemes like this break down this invisible barrier that sometimes exists between non-white people and these large organisations.
“There’s a lot of people who could have been put off but a scheme like this has opened their eyes to the opportunities that are out there for them.”
HL has taken on a total of three interns as part of the scheme with participating organisations able to onboard as many as five.
Georgie Lewis, a coordinator for the West of England Black Interns Pilot Project said the collaborative approach companies had taken for the scheme had been “really positive”.
Ms Lewis said: "From our perspective it has been incredible how easy it has been to get 20 organisations on board to want to take interns.
“Particularly at a time for smaller organisations, who after the last 18 months you might have thought financially would not be in a position or have the resources to commit to an intern’s four-week development. So to have a range of different sized organisations involved has been incredible."
Danny Cox, head of external relations at HL, added: “If you had talked to people about HL two or three years ago, we would have been seen as an asset management company where mostly white, middle-aged men like me worked, and that’s not what we’re about.
“We’re shifting and changing all the time and this is part of that shift, and I think we have made some good strides.”
Mr Henry said it would be “amazing” if his internship would lead to a full-time job with HL.
Mr Henry said: “There’s a load of opportunities. Whether it leads to a full-time job or not, the experience that you get during the programme is amazing for anyone who is up and coming and trying to develop their career as a graduate.”
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