In 2021, committed to diversifying its graduate talent pipeline, the UK’s largest listed water company, United Utilities, signed up to participate in 10,000 Black Interns, a programme that creates opportunities for underrepresented Black or of Black heritage talent in partnership with multinational corporations, professional firms, ambitious startups, and public bodies.
As part of its pledge, UU offers paid, summer internships to Black or of Black heritage youth who have a place at a UK university for the following year / are current university students / are recent university graduates. The internships are designed to give bright young talent a flying start at building their careers.
Last year, out of the 21 internships completed, two graduates went on to apply for, and were fast-tracked into, UU’s graduate programme. This year the water company has 22 internships it wants to fill as part of its pledge to 10,000 Black Interns.
As part of its MSP partnership with UU, Rullion manages the end-to-end recruitment process of the internships, from when the candidates apply for UU’s internships via 10,000 Black Intern’s recruitment system, right up until they are put forward for interview with UU.
As part of that process, Rullion’s MSP account team screens all the submitted CVs and conducts pre-screening competency-based interviews with the candidates they have shortlisted for interview. The successful candidates are then put forward to UU for face-to-face interview before an internship is offered.
Rullion has also helped a national retailer with its EDI as part of its MSP partnership with the organisation by placing 48 agency workers that were referred by Back 2 Work (B2W) Group.
The placements were made as part of Rullion’s recent partnership with B2W Group and resulted in creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce for the national retailer as most candidates were from ethnic minority groups in the Greater Manchester area.
B2W Group is a skills and training provider focused on pre-employment and employability training, bootcamps and apprenticeships. Its goal is to empower people with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to develop their careers.
Interested in exploring how an MSP can help you with your EDI strategy? If yes, check out our post, How can having an MSP help further your EDI agenda? Alternatively, fill out our contact form below and one of the team will get back to you.