Enthusiastic graduates coming to Yorkshire

Today I have been putting the finishing touches to a really exciting project.

When Heather McGregor came up to Yorkshire to speak at the northern CIPR conference recently, she mentioned an inspirational internship programme that her business is running.

Taylor Bennett is a headhunter for the communications industry.  Increasingly they are asked to find more diverse shortlists of candidates for top communications jobs.   But this is not a career that people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) traditionally go into.

As a long term investment to fill this gap, Taylor Bennett has set up an internship programme in London with the University of East London and Brunswick PR.  I have said I would like to bring this to Yorkshire next year as part of Northern Lights’ 20^th anniversary activities.

I went down to London two weeks ago to meet this year’s interns and critique their presentations, given at the FT.

I was so inspired by their commitment, professionalism and potential that I’ve also arranged to bring the interns up to our region.  I remember how ‘London’ I was before I moved up here – and I want these young people to be inspired and understand just how important the rest of the country is to the economy.

We’ve put together a really cracking two day schedule for 30 Nov and 1 Dec and I’m so grateful to leaders in this region who have enthusiastically offered support.

• Yorkshire Forward
• Welcome to Yorkshire
• Bradford University School of Management
• Bradford City Council
• Northern Ballet Theatre
• Pace

Hopefully these interns will be ambassadors for our region as they start their careers in the south.