We know that Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students face specific and real barriers to career development. In light of the worldwide and local Black Lives Matter movement, we want to affirm our ongoing commitment to supporting our BAME students.
For some of the ways we work to support BAME students to achieve their full potential when they graduate see ‘Equality and Diversity matters’ on mycareer. For regular e-mails highlighting relevant information, events and opportunities such as these, you can sign up to receive our Flying Start Bulletin here.
We also recognise the importance of working with others to enable us to support you fully. Within the University, this includes collaborating with staff and students such as the BAME Student Inclusion Officer, the BME Success Advocates and student societies. Outside of the university, signposting to relevant organizations is an important part of our role.
This blog post highlights some well-regarded, free-to-access organisations which have been working for years to promote diversity and level the playing field for those entering the graduate workplace.
We encourage you to take up the many opportunities which are on offer, from workshops to internships.
Rare Recruitment
- Data driven contextual recruitment, Internships and Summer programmes
“Rare doesn’t make the process easier, it makes the candidate better” – Sengova Kailondo, Rare Alumnus
Rare Recruitment are leaders in diversity graduate recruitment, working both with individual candidates and with recruiters to change the playing field, especially in advancing contextual job offers.
SEO London
- Skills training, Industry programmes
“SEO gave me the confidence to pursue my dreams of being a lawyer” – Tiani, Class of 2016
SEO London prepare talented students from ethnic minority or low socioeconomic backgrounds for career success. They provide training in a range of areas including technical skills, commercial awareness, and psychometric tests. SEO also run industry programmes in a range of sectors.
Creative Access
- Internship and Job opportunities, Training and Support
“Having people on board from different backgrounds sparks creativity” - Sophia Slater, former Creative Access intern
Creative Access works to help individuals from underrepresented backgrounds to thrive in the creative industries so that Britain’s creative industries truly reflect our society. They advertise opportunities across the creative industries – including government and policy – and offer training and support to candidates.
Black Young Professionals Network
- Networking
“If it wasn’t for BYP Network, I wouldn’t have applied and accepted my current position. So thank you for being such a great organisation” – Devon, Software Engineer
BYP Network connects black professionals to each other, job opportunities, black businesses, events, and freelancers. They also have a fantastic blog and a jobs board.
Windsor Fellowship
- Leadership, internships
“I benefitted greatly … as well as meeting some brilliant people, having a safe environment to develop professional skills and learn about the world of work was invaluable.” – Nadiya Takolia, Home Office Fellow
The Windsor Fellowship is a charitable organisation which aims to enable talent from diverse communities to be realised. They run a variety of programmes and internships with high-profile organisations including P&G, Greenpeace, and the House of Commons.
LinkedIn Groups
- Networking, Commercial awareness
There are hundreds of thousands of groups on LinkedIn which are an easy and quick way to build your knowledge of a particular sector and connect with individuals in those fields. Many groups have also been created by professionals from specific backgrounds to build communities with others in similar circumstances. Here are a few examples:
- Black Executive Network
- Black Enterprise
- National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)
- The Black Economists Network
- Black British Businesswomen
If you aren’t confident about how to best make use of LinkedIn, please do book into our Quickfix and webinar which you can find on mycareer.
Other opportunities
The list above is by no means exhaustive. Many employers have a firm commitment to diversity and inclusion. Some offer additional resources or programmes to Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic students which may be more specific to your sector interests.
Keep in touch
As always, we are here to help you, whether you’d like to talk through your career aspirations or get some individual advice on any applications you’d like to pursue.
We will be following up this blog with some guest spots and case studies from our students and staff on how they have approached and achieved in their career journeys. Watch this space! Remember you can sign up to receive notifications about new blog entries by signing up in the box at the top of the blog.