The initiative now has 28 asset management companies signed up and recruited its first full-time chief executive, Karis Stander, in September2014. It has broadened into a true industry-wide effort, with training and communications personnel from Legal & General Investment Management, BNY Mellon, M&G Investments and Schroders serving on its executive committee.
The programme doesn’t positively discriminate, so in theory it could take a well-connected maths graduate from Oxford. But Stander says: “The way our programme has been structured – a one year paid work experience contract, no guarantee of a permanent position, school leavers working alongside graduates, entry level payment sitting on or close to the London living wage – is not a natural fit for Oxbridge grads.
“The majority of our trainees (98%) have come from a state-school education, whether school leavers or graduates, and would not qualify for graduate programmes in the industry. This is by its very nature injecting much needed diversity into our industry.”
According to the Investment Association, 80% of the young people who go through the programme go on to be offered full-time posts by their training company, and of the ones who don’t, most go on to get jobs at other firms.