Kevin Ellis: Social mobility is really important. Our business is about people. We want the very best people to want to join us, and those very best people must reflect the widest echelons of society. We must make sure that everyone has the opportunity to work, whatever their background, whatever their postcode, whatever their upbringing in education.
Grace Osborne: We run two parts, a virtual and an in-person session, and we’re really looking to help students connect with professionals. We run 60 events across all of our UK offices. The sessions focus on gaining new employability skills. They are developing and setting their goals, and then they’ll come to our offices where they do a consulting challenge.
Chris McNamara: Young people need opportunities more so than ever, through the lockdown, COVID-19 and PwC are leading the way in doing this. One in particular is that employers work with schools because schools need support and schools are there to get academics, PwC are recognising this problem and giving young people physical skills and opportunities to come in and be inspired.
Bethany Thompson: Being able to come in and visit and speak to employers and hear their journeys, hear their pathways into that career was really beneficial to them, because it opens up their minds, opens up their world to all the opportunities that are available to them.
Holly Mitchell: Hearing from one of the partners here at PwC and how she was from a working class background and has worked her way up to such a privileged position is really inspiring for them and making them realise I can do this.
Sofia Soares: The amount of different careers and different career paths and opportunities they have in one single company and what they can offer for their future, and they also get to apply what they learn in the classroom to a real life context. These workshops, these sessions are incredibly valuable and inspiring for them.
New World. New Skills schools series student 1: Well, when I came to PwC, it’s really nice. It seems more like a community than just a job that you come into every day, and it feels like a lifestyle and a place you would want to work in the environment you would want to be in every day.
New World. New Skills schools series student 2: I was quite interested in business and finance and accounting, and I just wanted to see how it works around here, what the company is like, and if I was able to work here through apprenticeships or in a university degree.
New World. New Skills schools series student 3: I felt intimidated because the building was very tall and it looked very nice, but when I came in, I saw that it wasn’t as intimidating as I thought it would be, because I was guided through everything that I was doing.
New World. New Skills schools series student 4: Really loved it in terms of listening to others, and it was interesting to hear everyone’s views, what they think about it, and in terms of coming up with solutions, a lot of people can be creative with the solutions. When the chairman came in, him speaking was very inspiring for me, to hear him speak and to ask him questions, it was really good because then it gave us a little bit more insight.
Kevin: Effectively, what we are doing is demystifying the world of work, and thus it widens the gate for the opportunities that they might consider available to them. At the same time as an employer, it widens the gate for us in terms of the talent that might want to work here. Effectively, it’s a two-way street of opportunity for us and those school children.
