We are committed to addressing social mobility and know that many gifted young people face barriers to success.
In addition, we need to diversify our talent pipeline if we are to mitigate challenges from the future skills gap (UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Quality Education).
Year Up
In America, Year Up provides us with access to a pipeline of motivated, ambitious young people who lack access to opportunity due to socioeconomic barriers.
Through Year Up’s intensive one-year programme, young adults first spend six months in the classroom learning in-demand technical and professional skills, and then join our teams for a six-month corporate internship to hone their skills, gain hands-on experience, and build a strong professional network to help launch their professional career.
Finance Analyst Fateh Ahmed joined our business two and a half years ago as an intern through the Year Up programme. He tells us about his experience:
My placement, coaching, and subsequent role at Turner & Townsend have helped me build technical expertise and soft skills.
Fateh continues: “I am learning a lot about different industries as I support our external facing teams to meet the needs of their clients. As Corporate Responsibility Champion in the New York office, I set a clear direction and bring people together around common causes.”
Future education goals
Due to the flexible nature of his role, Fateh continues to pursue his higher education goals while he works and is planning on doing a combined Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration degree in the near future.
Since our partnership with Year Up began in 2015, we have offered more than 50 percent of the interns permanent positions in our business. We are looking to expand this initiative in the year ahead.
