10 years of BCBF – Reflections from our founder
Dr Rachel Carr, our Chief Executive and Co-Founder, looks back on the successes of our Big City Bright Future internship programme as we celebrate its tenth birthday!
When I first set up IntoUniversity, it was inspired by a recognition that many of the bright, talented young people in my local community were not being represented in the university lecture theatres in which I was then teaching.
And this really did not seem right – I felt that these wonderful young people had so much potential to achieve but simply weren’t being given a fair shot. After developing programmes on the ground at a local community centre, and then establishing IntoUniversity as a growing and independent charity, it didn’t take long for us to realise that it wasn’t just in the lecture theatres of higher education institutions that young people facing disadvantage were underrepresented. University participation was an absolutely vital objective – but only the start.
The young people we supported into university were finding it equally hard to open the doors of corporate offices… let alone boardrooms. Even those who had beaten the odds to get a degree were struggling to compete with their more advantaged peers in the graduate job market, particularly in the most competitive professional roles.
The issues were then – and to some degree still remain – multifaceted. Many routes into graduate roles relied upon unpaid or low paid internships that our young people could rarely afford to take up; networks of sector contacts that they just didn’t have were key to getting a foot in the door. Many young people were put off by perceptions of The City as ‘not for me’, walking into any large corporate office was unthinkable, and knowing no one in ‘those types of jobs’ made them seem alien and out of reach. Put simply, they did not see themselves represented in those companies … and not seeing led to not believing these careers were for them. Perhaps just as much as going to university then, becoming a top financier or successful lawyer felt like flying to the moon for many of our students.
So we came to realise that more was and still is needed from us: yes, it is vital to ensure that our young people are provided with the academic support and cultural experiences they need to succeed in higher education, but equally this must be coupled with a concerted effort to provide opportunities for them to experience jobs across a range of industries and companies, to enable them to understand what sort of careers might be on offer and how to access them and to introduce them to their colleagues of the future so they feel like they can really belong.
Nowhere throughout IntoUniversity is this approach more visible than in Big City Bright Future (BCBF), our flagship paid internship programme. I’m so proud that we are celebrating its tenth birthday! I can still remember that first group of 15 young people brimming with excitement and nervous energy ahead of their internships. Since then we’ve worked with 1076 talented and unique students and an eclectic spread of 37 top tier, committed and dedicated corporate partners to deliver transformative, life-changing internship experiences.
This year it’s been such a pleasure to be able to reflect on everything that has been achieved in the last ten years. This report provides just a snapshot of how impactful the programme has been in giving our young people the chance to build new skills and enjoy multivarious experiences which will help them make an informed decision about their future goals and aspirations. Recent students who have completed BCBF are now studying for a degree having experienced some of what professional life after university has to offer and they are already thinking ahead proactively about their next career steps. Many others are already embarking on successful careers: lawyers, accountants, bankers, doctors, teachers and graphic designers among them. Bright Futures indeed!
A huge thank you to everyone who has been involved in BCBF over the last ten years: your ambitious creativity and committed hard work have made the programme a transformative success. Thank you to our amazing corporate partners. And our talented and dedicated staff team.