Robert Thesiger, chief executive officer of City recruiter BRUIN Financial, tells Recruiter that as a supplier to financial services institutions, the company has a “duty of care” to assist clients in giving back to the community.

Thesiger was speaking the day after the launch of the City Talent Initiative (CTI), a project initiated by BRUIN aimed at supporting young people from low-income backgrounds into City careers. The programme is project managed by charity the Social Mobility Foundation (SMF).

He says that the company expects to gain “nothing” from CTI, saying: “We’re not looking to make any money out of this.”

Thesiger explains: “This forms part of our CSR [corporate social responsibility] programme. I firmly believe having been in this industry for 22 years, and as an organisation that recruits solely for the financial services industry, we have a duty of care to our clients to help them to give back to the community.”

The scheme came about after MP David Lammy wrote an article in newspaper City AM about the issue of social mobility and jobs in the City. BRUIN responded, and Lammy went on to chair a number of diversity forums with the company.

At its launch, the scheme has partnered with Ernst & Young, JP Morgan, RBS and Strutt & Parker, with Thesiger saying the firm has a further three or four firms on board for next year.

Thesiger (left) notes that there are several other “very good” organisations doing similar things – upReach and Future First being just two examples Recruiter has reported on in recent months. The fact that CTI has been able to “garner the cross party support” is key to its success, he adds.

Eligible young people will be offered paid internships with one of the organisations every year during their A-Levels and degree, with an assigned mentor from the company and SMF support in making choices around university applications.

Thesiger says that at the end of the scheme, participants “might not go and work with Ernst & Young [for example], they might go and work for a different company, but we would like to see the individuals offered permanent opportunities they would never have been offered five years ago”.

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