white men who had attended an independent or selective state school. The findings led to the launching of an independent taskforce by the Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in order to address the matter.
Almost a year later, multinational investment banking company Goldman Sachs has also decided to join these efforts to boost social mobility in the UK financial sector, with the launching of an apprenticeship programme in partnership with Queen Mary University of London. Under the initiative, Goldman Sachs will start training apprentices directly for the first time on its London trading floor. The programme opens for recruitment on Monday, and selected individuals will be given an opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the industry as paid on-the-job trainees, starting from September 2022.
“As an industry, we are still not doing a good enough job at appealing to students from a more diverse socioeconomic background,” Daniel Freckleton, a managing director in global markets at Goldman Sachs, said. “There is of course an interplay between socio-economic background and ethnic minorities, so working to improve social mobility in our recruitment process is likely to have knock-on benefits to our racial diversity too.”
The investment bank intends to initially recruit 10 candidates, who will enjoy a host of attractive benefits, including a chance to participate in two one-week “teaching sprints” at Queen Mary’s school of economics and finance each semester. According to Goldman, they will also earn a “competitive” annual salary and will be eligible for a bonus
