We recognise that a number of talented university students and graduates face socioeconomic barriers which not only derail their own career goals but also limit the range of skills that feed into companies’ applicant pools.
To address these challenges and diversify the pipeline of candidates for member firms, we work closely with our key charity partner UpReach to bridge the gap between career potential and access to entry-level roles.
Our ongoing projects are centred around three key objectives, which inform our programmes and initiatives:
- Career Path Awareness: Enabling students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds to make informed career decisions by tapping into our network of DP Member Firms (industry volunteers). The ultimate goal is to demystify our industry and encourage students to explore a variety of career paths within asset management and insurance. This in turn helps employers source talent from relatively less accessible pockets of the applicant pool.
- Training and Mentoring: Partnering with charities which target students who would otherwise have limited access to personal and professional networks (e.g. state school students who are first in their family to attend university). To date, UpReach is our main charity partner, but we recognise there are other organisations working in this area as well.
- Inclusive Recruitment & Retention of a Diverse Talent Pool: Liaising with HR departments and in-house recruiters at DP Member Firms to source applicants from non-traditional backgrounds, who tend to be underrepresented in graduate recruitment.
Further information on our specific 2022 objectives can be found here
The Diversity Project partners with upReach for the Investment Springboard programme, a 3 year programme of personalised careers support, that is designed to help eligible university students looking to join the investment and savings industry. The programme includes mentoring, work experience at Diversity Project partner firms and ongoing training. Over 300 students have now been on the programme.
