10,000 Black Interns, which aims to transform the horizons and prospects of young Black people in the UK, has opened applications to young Black students and graduates for its ground-breaking programme to place over 2,000 interns in paid roles at more than 700 businesses across 24 sectors of British industry.
The hope is that it will have a long-term impact on the UK working environment – an internship can be an important jump-start to a career
The program follows the success of the first series of internships, which was focussed mostly on the fund management sector and delivered 501 successful placements at companies ranging from Goldman Sachs and HSBC, to Coutts and St James’ Place.
Applications for the 2022 programme are open from 6th September 2021 until 7th November 2021, and are available to young people from Black African, Black Caribbean, Mixed Black and/or other Black British backgrounds who are over the age of 18 and are currently studying at University in the UK, or who have graduated since 2018.
The internships will constitute paid work experience and last a minimum of six weeks, taking place in the summer of 2022. Successful applicants will receive training to ensure they are workplace-ready and can make the most of the opportunity.
The internships will provide successful candidates with valuable on-the-job professional experience in one of 24 industry sectors, including Banking and Finance, Investment Management, Insurance, Accountancy, Law, Healthcare Management, Education, Technology, Recruitment & Executive Search, Engineering, Marketing and Advertising, and more.
The Programme is coordinated by Esther Odejimi-Uzokwe, who, in a recent interview with panAfrican said: “The hope is that it will have a long-term impact on the UK working environment – an internship can be an important jump-start to a career, and it’s the perfect place to start building a pipeline for an industry or a business, because junior talent is the future of industry leadership.
“We talk about issues in terms of Black representation in senior leadership and middle management within firms, and you’re not going to be able to celebrate having people that look like me in senior leadership when you haven’t put in the work at the junior level to create, maintain and nurture that pipeline in the first place”
Companies signed up to participate in the 2022 programme range from multinational corporations such as GSK, American Express and Google, to leading professional firms in law, accountancy and Executive search, as well as cutting-edge sector specialists such as TikTok, and public bodies including the NHS.
The programme is being supported by seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Sir Lewis Hamilton MBE, whose Hamilton Commission highlighted reasons behind the lack of Black representation in the UK motorsport industry earlier this year and provided ten recommendations to help address them.
Sir Lewis Hamilton MBE said: “10000BlackInterns is an important initiative which aims to address the underrepresentation of Black talent in British business, by offering paid internships across a wide range of exciting sectors. This programme is a real game changer for young people and I strongly encourage Black students to apply.”
10,000 Black Interns launched in 2021 following the overwhelming success of the pilot initiative 100 Black Interns, which was developed to address the chronic lack of diversity in the UK’s investment management industry.
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