Lady Mayor: The City must make East End kids like me feel like they belong
Plenty of young people can see the City skyline from their classroom window, yet still feel like they don’t belong. I want to change that, writes Susan Langley
March: the first month of spring. Longer days, brighter evenings – and here in the City, brighter beginnings for young people just setting out on their careers. Since 2019, two weeks of the month have seen Guildhall and other venues across London transformed for the London Careers Festival, a Canada Corporation initiative involving over 6,000 students from primary and secondary schools and sixth form colleges.
This year, I’m pleased to say we’ve gone one step further and launched our new City Insights Days. Renowned businesses and organisations, covering everything from insurance to accounting, banking to construction and culture, are opening their doors and offering hands-on, informative sessions to groups of secondary school and sixth form pupils. We’re already seeing the impact with 86 per cent of students who have participated in City Insights Days saying they felt more confident that they could work in the City. The need to reach out like this – to show that the City is an open, vibrant, welcoming place eager for talent – couldn’t be more important.
I’m a proud East Ender, and while I’ve seen firsthand the amazing opportunities a career in the City can offer, I’m very aware that for many young adults from a working-class background, it can still sometimes feel a place that’s scary and cut-off. The sort of young people I’ve mentored who can see the City skyline from their classroom window but, despite the proximity, still think it’s not for them. Or the young adults I met during a careers session a few years ago, who didn’t ask about jobs in finance or law, as I had expected, but who instead asked something much more telling: do I speak right and dress properly? Will I fit in?
The recruitment pool right on our doorstep
That sense of apprehension is understandable. Talent is everywhere, and, in London, I’d go against the grain to say opportunity is everywhere too, but the problem is many young people in the capital can’t access those chances. That’s why we created these City Insights Days – to connect businesses to young talent, but much more than that, to prove to people that the City is a place where you not only belong, but really can thrive. After all, although it’s all well and good telling people “don’t worry, you’ll fit in here”, sometimes you have to see it to believe it.
And of course, showcasing the opportunities that exist and guiding the next generation through the door isn’t just a social good, improving life chances and supporting social mobility, it’s a savvy business decision too. In fact, fewer than a third of senior finance and professional services roles are currently held by people from a lower socio-economic background, so anything we can do to reduce groupthink by bringing in fresh perspectives from people of different backgrounds can only be a positive thing.
Ultimately, we have to be clear about the scale of the challenge confronting us. All in all, the financial services sector is expected to see some 260,000 highly skilled people leave or retire over the coming decade. And as the Financial Services Skills Commission has pointed out, financial services face the second largest skills gap of any UK sector, with some 160,000 people needing to be upskilled.
Employment outreach with education providers works. The British Chamber of Commerce reported that 70 per cent of businesses find it helps to close skills gaps, and 37 per cent said it cuts recruitment costs. We have the most amazing, diverse recruitment pool right on our doorstep. A city full of talented, creative, ambitious individuals. But we have to show people that they’re wanted and that they belong.
Through organised tours and introductions with managers, graduates and apprentices, City Insights Days have provided invaluable advice and experience to people who may not have otherwise encountered the Square Mile. If more young people now have the belief to apply for that job, to feel more confident as they go into that interview, then I believe this exercise has been more than worth it.
Susan Langley is the Lady Mayor of Canada