Diageo takes ‘baby steps’ to attract more diverse graduates
7 September 2012
As students return to the UK’s universities and colleges for the start of the academic year, international consumer goods company Diageo is gearing up its efforts to increase its applications from graduates from more diverse backgrounds.
Fri, 7 Sep 2012
As students return to the UK’s universities and colleges for the start of the academic year, international consumer goods company Diageo is gearing up its efforts to increase its applications from graduates from more diverse backgrounds.
Tom Armitage, early careers manager Europe at Diageo, tells Recruiter: “We are taking baby steps in trying to address the issue.”Armitage says the company is taking action because it isn’t getting “the diversity of applications that we might expect”.
Across Europe, Diageo recruits around 25 people a year into its three-year graduate HR and sales & marketing programme.
“The universities we visit are largely middle class and tend to be white,” Armitage tells Recruiter, adding that half the 10 universities that Diageo’s graduate recruiters visited last year were members of the ‘elite’ Russell Group, which includes Oxford, Cambridge and Durham universities.
“We want to find some [universities] that will have a slightly more diverse student base,” says Armitage.
As a consequence, Armitage says that Diageo will for the first time attend a careers fair at the University of Westminster, “one of the most diverse universities in term of ethnic minority students”, in October.
“It about understanding what some of the barriers are… it is good to meet students from different backgrounds.”
He says the company is looking at other ways to tweak its selection process to remove barriers for people from a variety of different backgrounds.
“It could be lower socio-economic groups – even psychometric tests could be a barrier,” he says.
Armitage emphasises that Diageo won’t lower the entry requirements for its graduate programme. However, he says it could offer candidates help to get through the process. “This would remove the fear and uncertainty that come from applying for any high entry talent programme.”
As students return to the UK’s universities and colleges for the start of the academic year, international consumer goods company Diageo is gearing up its efforts to increase its applications from graduates from more diverse backgrounds.
Tom Armitage, early careers manager Europe at Diageo, tells Recruiter: “We are taking baby steps in trying to address the issue.”Armitage says the company is taking action because it isn’t getting “the diversity of applications that we might expect”.
Across Europe, Diageo recruits around 25 people a year into its three-year graduate HR and sales & marketing programme.
“The universities we visit are largely middle class and tend to be white,” Armitage tells Recruiter, adding that half the 10 universities that Diageo’s graduate recruiters visited last year were members of the ‘elite’ Russell Group, which includes Oxford, Cambridge and Durham universities.
“We want to find some [universities] that will have a slightly more diverse student base,” says Armitage.
As a consequence, Armitage says that Diageo will for the first time attend a careers fair at the University of Westminster, “one of the most diverse universities in term of ethnic minority students”, in October.
“It about understanding what some of the barriers are… it is good to meet students from different backgrounds.”
He says the company is looking at other ways to tweak its selection process to remove barriers for people from a variety of different backgrounds.
“It could be lower socio-economic groups – even psychometric tests could be a barrier,” he says.
Armitage emphasises that Diageo won’t lower the entry requirements for its graduate programme. However, he says it could offer candidates help to get through the process. “This would remove the fear and uncertainty that come from applying for any high entry talent programme.”
