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News WEST MIDLANDS LAW BUSINESSES AWARDED REGIONAL WORK INSPIRATION AWARD Eversheds LLP and Wragge & Co LLP Business in the Community (BITC) today announced that local law companies Eversheds LLP and Wragge & Co LLP have been selected from almost 40 entries and have been awarded a ‘Highly Commended’ award for providing an inspiring and robust work experience placement programme to young people in the West Midlands region. Eversheds is an international law firm with over 3,500 legal and business advisers across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Its vision is to be a great place to work and the most client-centred international law firm. Eversheds Work Inspiration programme – ‘Eversheds Unlocked’ - is a unique programme aimed at first year A level students who are the first in their family to go to university, are studying at state schools and have a genuine enthusiasm for the legal profession. The programme has been developed to give young people from ‘disadvantaged’ backgrounds the support to successfully apply to university and understand what they need to do to secure a training contract at a law firm like Eversheds. The Work Inspiration programme aims to dispel the myths surrounding the legal profession. The students spend time with a trainee on a one-to-one basis to map out the specific actions they will need to take over the next 18 months and beyond. Students also participate in an employment game and a litigation exercise with trainees and solicitors and the programme culminates with individual presentations by the students to an audience of trainees, solicitors and partners. Eversheds are working with state secondary schools that have a broad range of students including a strong ethnic minority mix. This is to ensure that those children who would not normally think that they could follow a career in the legal profession but are clearly talented are encouraged to push themselves beyond their perceived boundaries. Wragge & Co is a major UK law firm providing a full service to clients worldwide, including 27 FTSE 100 and 22 FTSE 250 businesses, hundreds of public sector organisations and thousands of large private companies. They aim to attract and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures, but the Work Inspiration programmes are as much about raising aspirations and fulfilling individual potential as they are about future recruitment pools. By offering work placements to individuals from the broadest range of backgrounds, Wragge is able to introduce them to the legal profession and encourage them to consider a career in law and the possibilities it has to offer them. They can also raise awareness about the range of other job roles within this type of organisation. There are 20 job roles within Wragge – of which only one is lawyer! ‘Day in the life of a commercial lawyer’ open days are held in Wragge’s offices. This scheme specifically targets students from inner city schools in disadvantaged areas with a high percentage of children from BAME backgrounds. It provides them with an honest insight into the legal profession and life as a lawyer. In order to address the under-representation of people from BAME backgrounds in the legal profession, they also offer one week work experience placements to the ten most enthusiastic and motivated students who attend each Open Day. In addition, Wragge also works with the University of the First Age on a scheme to enable 14-18 year old students from minority and/or underprivileged backgrounds to spend a week with the firm. They participate in the Warwick University Multicultural Scholars’ Programme (MSP) for law students and students are mentored by their current trainees and visit their offices on a regular basis. Sarah Gibb, National Campaign Manager said, “We are delighted with the response we have received from all the entrants which proves that there are many businesses out there already making a big difference by offering inspiring work placements that will ultimately have an impact on a young persons career decisions. But we know that employers have more to do to bridge the gap between the classroom and the world of work if British business is to find the talent, creativity and skills needed for our future”. To become a Work inspiration employer log onto www.workinspiration.com. Ends For more information please contact Linda Considine on 07502 372 774 or linda.considine@yahoo.co.uk Notes to editors • The new Business in the Community Regional Work Inspiration Award was launched alongside the national Awards for Excellence at the Business in the Community AGM in December 2009 • Almost 40 entries were received and judged by a panel which included representatives from Accenture, Affinity Sutton, BT, Credit Suisse, DLA Piper, Edge Learner Forum, Nationwide Building Society and Reed in Partnership • What is the difference between a regional Award for Excellence and our national Awards for Excellence? • To find the best examples of each, entries to the Regional Work Inspiration Award will be assessed against the other entries in each English region, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales • As a Regional Award for Excellence its function is to provide a means to select the best examples in a particular region. Therefore companies who are successful in this category are considered to be one of the best examples in that region • Successful entries in this Regional Award are not awarded a Big Tick. A Business in the Community’s Big Tick is only awarded to a company whose entry has competed in a national Award for Excellence category and has achieved a (national) standard set by the assessors that year that demonstrates significant impact across that category’s criteria that has been backed up with evidence of the impact they are having. It is intended to develop this award category into an Award for Excellence in 2011 • Work Inspiration is one of four awards in 2010 that focus on a key component of our talent agenda. The other three include Education, Employability and Skills in the Workplace. For more information on the Work Inspiration Campaign please visit www.workinspiration.com. Background to the Work Inspiration campaign Business in the Community has spent 18 months researching senior business leaders’ ideas on how to tackle the skills and talent deficit in the UK. One of the key issues identified through Business in the Community’s Talent Debates, attended by 2,000 business leaders in 2008-2009, was the gap between young people’s expectations of the world of work and what business expected from those new recruits. There is also a knowledge gap between the world of work and young people: young people are leaving education with little understanding of how to progress with a career; the range of jobs and opportunities available for them; and how to make their first steps in the world of work. This gap poses a critical issue to business: if young people don’t know what jobs are out there and how to get into them, this could lead to a serious lack of applicant and/or appropriately skilled applicants in future. By raising awareness among the corporate sector, we will use businesses as a catalyst for positive change to the way work experience is provided for young people. The gap also highlights a critical social need to better equip young people with a more transparent and inspirational picture of the world of work, so that they are better able to make decisions about their future career paths on leaving school or university.