A group of 20 London boroughs have joined together to launch a recruitment
campaign aimed at increasing the number of finance trainees from ethnic
minorities.
It is hoped that the campaign, which is being managed by recruitment
specialists GradWeb, will recruit 40 candidates by February 2004.
Rob Whiteman, executive director for resources and deputy chief executive of
Lewisham Borough Council, which is spearheading the campaign, was optimistic
the initiative would help to rectify the under-representation of ethnic
minorities within the local government finance sector.
"This is the first time that London boroughs have come together to
recruit finance graduates into their organisations," he said.
"We chose GradWeb as it has a lot of experience in this sector, and we
felt it would be able to hit the ground running.
"This was vital as the campaign needs to be devised, launched, then
graduates selected and on board within four months, which is a very tight
deadline for any organisation."
Once appointed, the trainees will be employed by the local boroughs on a
four-year fixed-term contract.
They will undertake a structured training programme based on the Chartered
Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy qualification.
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The recruitment advertising campaign was devised by Work Communications, and
is called ‘Be the future of public finance’.
