Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Social mobilityEquality, diversity and inclusionLatest NewsEthnicityRecruitment & retention

Campaign to take on 10,000 black interns launched

by Ashleigh Webber 27 Oct 2020
by Ashleigh Webber 27 Oct 2020

Organisations including the NHS, Linklaters, PwC and Zurich have committed to a programme to collectively hire 10,000 black interns, in a bid to improve ethnic diversity in business and to boost job prospects for young black people.

The 10,000 Black Interns campaign encourages businesses to offer paid work experience placements to young black people, and has received support from senior political figures including former prime minister David Cameron, Labour peer Baroness Amos and the former Liberal Democrat and Labour MP Chuka Umunna, who is now an executive at communications consultancy Edelman.

Racial prejudice at work

‘White privilege’: using HR’s influence to tackle racism and bias

Network of ‘allies’ needed to address racial prejudice at work

Cummings ‘unusual’ recruit dismissed after BLM comment

It aims to have companies in more than 20 sectors offering approximately 100 internships to young black people every year for five years.

Representatives from 10 sectors including finance, education, law, healthcare, data science, marketing and recruitment have already agreed to take part in the programme.

It will also work in partnership with higher education bodies including University Alliance, GuildHE, MillionPlus and the Russell Group, which together represent 84 institutions with around 80,000 black students.

Cameron said: “This initiative will help build a more inclusive economy that works for everyone. We are encouraging leaders from British industry and professional services to champion the effort in their sector.”

Baroness Amos, Labour Peer and former diplomat, said: “It is so powerful to see leading players in different sectors pulling together to address the underrepresentation of Black talent in such a tangible and sustainable fashion. Of course there is so much more to do, but this programme is a great step in the right direction.”

The campaign has been launched just two months after the investment management sector set up a similar initiative to take on 100 black interns.

It is being led by 100 Black Interns founders Dawid Konotey-Ahulu, co-founder of financial services firms Redington and Mallowstreet; Jonathan Sorrell, president of Capstone Investment Advisors; Michael Barrington Hibbert, founder of executive search agency Barrington Hibbert Associates; and Wol Kolade, managing partner of private equity firm Livingbridge.

Since its launch in August, the 100 Black Interns initiative has seen 200 investment management companies offer work experience placements to black people.

Interns who are supported via the 10000 Black Interns programme will be expected to act as mentors and sponsor other black pupils and students in getting work placements, which the campaign’s founders said would help expand opportunities for young black people in the longer term.

The campaign is also being supported by the CBI, which earlier this month launched its Change The Race Ratio initiative to improve ethnic diversity in boardrooms. Yesterday it revealed that 20 more firms had signed up to the initiative, including Axa, Diageo, ITV, KPMG, Pearson and Siemens.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Lord Karan Bilimoria, CBI president, said: “We recognise there is a problem we have to address as a business community; we have known it for some time, but progress has been too slow.  The benefits of increasing racial and ethnic participation in business goes way beyond the obvious question of fairness and appropriateness in society today; we know from a range of studies that not only are diverse companies more attractive to talent and have better employee satisfaction, they also perform better.”

Recruitment and resourcing opportunities on Personnel Today

Browse more recruitment and resourcing jobs

Ashleigh Webber

Ashleigh is a former editor of OHW+ and former HR and wellbeing editor at Personnel Today. Ashleigh's areas of interest include employee health and wellbeing, equality and inclusion and skills development. She has hosted many webinars for Personnel Today, on topics including employee retention, financial wellbeing and menopause support.

previous post
Uber sued for ‘automated’ dismissals
next post
Reasonable adjustments: What is reasonable in the face of Covid-19?

1 comment

Simon 28 Oct 2020 - 3:59 pm

Pure racial and class discrimination.
The truth is that the most disadvantaged group in the country are young, white working class boys. They get screwed over once more by this.

Comments are closed.

You may also like

Redefining leadership: From competence to inclusion

21 May 2025

Black security manager awarded £360k after decade of...

20 May 2025

Culture, ‘micro-incivilities’ and invisible talent

14 May 2025

Contract cleaner loses EAT race discrimination appeal

14 May 2025

West Yorkshire Police denies positive discrimination accusations

10 Apr 2025

Eight new equality laws in the pipeline

10 Apr 2025

Thames Valley Police ‘positive discrimination’ led to ‘divided...

4 Apr 2025

NHS trust took ‘reasonable steps’ to stop racial...

31 Mar 2025

Mid-sized UK firms slow to improve boardroom ethnic...

11 Mar 2025

Foxtons staff accuse firm of culture of harassment

26 Feb 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+