Big City Bright FutureOnline Internship

Report 2020

01 Overview

02 Partner Firms

05 Assessing Impact

06 Results

03 Online Sessions 07 Conclusions

TABLE OFCONTENTS

OVERVIEW

The 3-week Online Internship wassplit into three sections: MorningActivities, Afternoon Sessions, andBuddy Calls.

Monday - Friday students wereprovided with optional MorningActivities focused on individualprofessional development . Thesecovered a range of topics, such asNetworking, Wellbeing, andOrganisation. Students accessedthese topics through podcasts,articles and self-reflections.

The second section was a series of 15online interactive Afternoon Sessionshosted by our partner firms and anexternal facilitator, Seth Wainwright .These sessions gave insight intospecific industries, allowed studentsto explore what a career in thatindustry would look like, and toexperience first hand tasksundertaken at the firm throughbreakout rooms, panels, and individualactivities.

Finally, on each of the three Fridaysduring the Internship, students werepaired with a 'Buddy' from theirallocated Firm . This allowed studentsto build their own personal networkwhilst gaining valuable insight into thefirm and their career pathway.

Big City Bright Future is a 3-weekpaid internship for IntoUniversitystudents in their last year of schoolbefore university. Students arerecruited from all over the UK. Theinternship provides high quality workexperience before university inindustries such as InvestmentBanking, Asset Management, Law,Consultancy and Marketing. Theprogramme aims to increase access tocompetitive areas of employment forstudents from underrepresentedbackgrounds.

A different format for 2020...

Due to the unprecedented situation in2020. We unfortunately had topostpone the physical programmeuntil 2021. All students accepted ontothe 2020 programme have had theirplaces deferred until 2021.

However, we still wanted to run andcreate a meaningful and impactful 3-weeks for the 2020 cohort, as welloffering an opportunity to all 200interviewees . The 6th - 24th of Julysaw 153 students take part in theOnline Internship . The first of its kindhosted by IntoUniversity.

'Across the 3-weeks, I saw myselfgrowing as a person. I became more

open minded to different career paths,gained a lot of confidence, improved my

presentation skills, and improved mycommercial awareness through my

buddies'- Siham Elmie, North Islington

01

PARTNERFIRMS

Big City Bright Future currently has 21 partner firms who take on a total of 119students each year . This year, every firm provided a 'Buddy' for each of theirallocated students. Allowing an insight into the firm and forming relationshipsahead of the physical placement next year.

As well of the Buddy calls, many of the firms hosted sessions for the OnlineInternship. BlackRock, Bloomberg, Kearney, LaSalle, MMC Ventures, N+1 Singer ,and Simmons & Simmons hosted live, highly engaging, industry specific, OnlineSessions. Moreover, for the Morning Activities, TD Securities hosted an in depthpodcast focusing on investment banking and Instinet provided videos and materialsexploring the role of marketing in the corporate world.

Our Partner Firms are crucial to Big City Bright Future. Thank you for your support!

'I truly think BCBF changed myperspective and made me more open to

explore everything but also made me feelmore encouraged to pursue what I

enjoyed learning about. Meeting otherinterns was also amazing!

- Kimberley Wang, East Ham

02

ONLINESESSIONS

'Hearing from so many of the hoststaught me the importance of resilience

for career success. It built my confidenceimmensely and I would say I am muchbetter prepared for future experiences

and meeting new people.'- Nuha Alam, Birmingham

BlackRockTwo sessions were hosted by BlackRock across the Internship.The first focused on an overview offinancial markets and the assetmanagement sector. The second washosted by the Black ProfessionalNetwork, this was a panel discussiondiscussing the barriers to employmentfor those from BAME backgrounds.'Today's session was really inspiring. I feltthe speakers were really motivational butmore importantly, relatable. I hope to behalf as aspirational as them in life'

Seth WainwrightWainwright Scott,hosted four sessions across the Internship. Seth usually runs the first'bootcamp' week of the physicalInternship. Seth's sessions covered keyskills for success, focusing on positivemindset, prioritisation and time boxing,communication and networking.'Practical, realistic advice with strong research statswhich make it even more interesting and feasible toimplement in our lives. I found the sessions reallyenlightening.'

Investment SeminarEbele Pearle, founder of Invest withEbele, gave the foundation for thefinancial sector and investing.'The best investment session I've ever been to,Ebele focused on our general understandingand explained all the industry jargon well!'

Star PotentialJessica Booker, founder and director ofStar Potential, focused on psychometrictests- the methods, measurements andmyths.'The session was a real eye-opener, we weregive lots of tips on how to tackle each test!'

LaSalleThe session focused on real estate investment management,including an opportunity to analysethe prospect of opening a newWestfield in Croydon.'This session increased my interest in thedifferent sides of real estate, especiallydata analytics, because I found thecombination of mathematical analysis,statistics and coding interesting'

BloombergStudents in the sessionwere able to experience 'BloombergVision', splitting into groups to analyse acompany and pitching to the rest of thecohort. The session finished with ademonstration of the Bloomberg Terminal.'I learnt so much and really got to understandfinancial markets and transactions betterthrough the case studies.'

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ONLINESESSIONS

MMC VenturesThis session focused on Venture Capital. Students assessed the viability of an investment into thecompany Gousto. The session endedwith a surprise appearance from theCEO of Gousto, Timo Boldt!'Amazing! Today's session introduced meto a sector that I would love to work in,and really resonated with me. It made mebelieve I can embark on my ownentrepreneurial ideas, I now haveconfidence to do this after hearing fromTimo, the founder of Gousto.'

Simmons & SimmonsStudents were given an introduction to the legal sector. TwoSimmons & Simmons trainees workedthrough cases and led discussions on keyquestions required to analyse the case.'I learnt a lot about the internal workings ofthe firm, the cases were relatable and providedan insight into the reality of the profession andshows the demand of the sector'

KearneyThis session was a 'Crack the Case'event, students participated in ashortened version of a consultingproject. The case focused on thecompany Too Good to Go, and ranthrough the analysis required torecommend expansion to the US.'Today's session was so insightful andinteresting, it has made me consider thepossibility of working in consulting as apotential career path.'

N+1 SingerThis session focused on the research required from an InvestmentBank. Students were split into groups andgiven a company profile. Studentsexamined if that company was a goodinvestment and ended with presentations.'Today I learnt the communicative skillsnecessary and the level of analysis needed tosucceed in investment banking and how multifaceted investment banking is; from retail tohealthcare etc. Amazing session, highlyinteractive, structured, informative andthorough.'

Tortoise Media Tortoise Media hosted a Digital ThinkIn, titled 'Who will hire theclass of 2020?' Students were given thespace to share their ideas, with the focusbeing on whether money or happiness wasthe driving factor behind career options.'The style of the session was fantastic - I lovedhearing everyone's viewpoints. What I liked themost was we could all just raise our hands orjust add points into the chat and discuss eachothers' views in an open way.'

'I have achieved an immense amount ofmotivation and confidence in developingmyself and learning more about differentsectors. I became more open minded andwilling to expose myself to new things,

even if it is out of my comfort zone.'- Aslinur Uysal, North Islington

04

The aim on the Online Internship 2020was to streamline student's careeraspirations . Ensuring studentsunderstood the career path theywanted and were equipped with thekey skills they needed to succeed inthis path . This was achieved byexposing the students to a variety ofindustries via the Online Sessions.

Prior to the Online Internship, allstudents took a survey to assess theirskills and knowledge. The graphic tothe right outlines the ten assessmentfor success criteria set out ahead ofthe Online Internship.

Every student undertook a self-reflection, rating themselves out of10 for each criteria . This process wasrepeated at the the end of the OnlineInternship to assess the uplift theInternship had on the students.

Finally the students were asked abouttheir industry preference and whetherthis had changed as a result of theOnline Internship.

ASSESSINGIMPACT

2Skills

Required toAchieve

Goals

4In-depthIndustry

Knowledge

3Ability to

Network withOthers

1Knowledge

of CareerAspirations

6Analysis andPresentation

8Ability to Self-

Reflect

7Confidence in

LeadershipRoles

5Inner Self-

Belief

10Prioritisation

and Structure

9Implementing

a PositiveMindset

'I learned much more about the roleswithin Asset Management and was able todiscover where my interests lie, giving me

more clarity as I move forward into mycareer. I developed professionally by

interacting with my buddies and gainingmore in-depth understanding of various

jobs within the financial services.'- Diego Dew, Nottingham

05

53%Of students said there career

choices have changed as aresult of the Internship

93%Of students rated the OnlineSessions as a 4 or 5 out of 5

153Students participated on the

Online Internship

One of the best parts of BCBF was thebreakout sessions. They really helped me

connect with people and werecompletely the opposite to what I

thought they would be. I'm not the bestwith talking to strangers, however theyreally helped me develop my soft skills.

- Enis Gerxhalija, Liverpool

RESULTS

The above Graph shows an increase in every assessment criteria. This was a student self-reflection exercise completed before and after the Internship, the assessment was out of 10.The average uplift, the difference between the pre and post survey results, of theassessment criteria was 1.2, which equates to a 16.5% average increase on each assessmentcriteria.The highest uplift, was assessment criteria 4, 'In-depth Industry Knowledge'. The uplift was2.3, which represents a 42% increase.

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CONCLUSIONS

'I've become more confident in myself andmy networking skills, I feel more apt to

work in a team and communicate after allthe breakout sessions we've had. This has

been a life-changing opportunity'- Karina Nicolae, Brighton

The above results clearly show thatthe aims of the Online Internshipwere fulfilled. In every assessmentcriteria there was an increase in self-reflection rating. This was thestudents personal reflections on theimpact of the programme on theirprofessional and personaldevelopment.

The body of students taking part inthe programme are the highestperforming Year 13 studentsIntoUniversity works with, and to gaina place, students have to show a highproficiency in each of the 10assessment criteria. It's no surprisetherefore that most rated themselveshighly in these areas on the pre-survey. Nonetheless, most studentsdeveloped these skills further over

the course of the programme, with anaverage increase of 1.2 points in eacharea.

The highest uplift was assessment criteria4. This criteria also represented the lowestaverage initial self-reflection rating of5.5. This criteria, post the Online Internship,was brought in line with average of theother criteria. Criteria 4 can be seen as thecritical criterion , and thus highlights thesignificant impact of the programme.

53% of the students stated that theircareer choices had changed as the resultof the Online Internship . As this was overhalf of the student body, the aim to'streamline student's career aspirations'was clearly met. With many of the other47% of students citing not a career change,but that their career choices had 'beenreinforced more and steered in theoptimal direction.'- Chelsea Just ,Oxford

Laying the foundations forthe next Academic Year

As students move into the next AcademicYear, the purpose of the Online Internshipwas to equip students with the tools tosucceed in their first year of University orother pursuit . Big City Bright Future is thefirst rung on a ladder of opportunity , thedesire is to see these students progressonto the next stage with confidence, suchas Spring Weeks and Summer Internships

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