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 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 at
Lewisham Borough Council, which is spearheading the campaign, was optimistic
the initiative would help boost the under-representation of ethnic minorities
within the local government finance sector.
“This
is the first time London boroughs have come together to jointly recruit finance
graduates into their organisations,” he said.
“We
chose GradWeb as it has much experience in this sector and we felt it would be
able to hit the ground running, which 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 and will undertake a structured training programme based
around the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy qualification.
The
recruitment advertising campaign was devised by Work Communications and is
called ‘Be the Future of Public Finance’.
