Access to Excellence: Widening Participation through Partnerships

Date Published: 31.10.2022

Sustained Contact Programmes for Young People

Wadham College is working with Barclays Corporate & Investment Bank and Linklaters LLP to offer young people from all backgrounds an opportunity to reach their full potential. These programmes aim to improve social mobility by supporting pupils from under-represented groups who are aspiring to study at a top university and to pursue a career in banking or in the legal profession.

Partnering with Barclays Corporate & Investment Bank on Access to Banking and with Linklaters LLP on Think Like a Lawyer, we have developed two free-to-attend sustained contact programmes that will help young people to make informed choices about their futures.

The programmes include online sessions to develop key academic and career skills; one-to-one A Level tutoring; personal statement mentoring; residentials at Wadham College; visits to Barclays Corporate & Investment Bank and Linklaters LLP’s offices; and free laptop and technical support. The students will have the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of how skills developed through studies can be applied successfully in these professions.

The programmes work with pupils throughout sixth form, starting in Year 12 and running up to the end of Year 13. Applications are invited from Year 12 students attending non-selective state schools, who have been eligible for free school meals in the last six years and are living in one of our link areas for Access to Banking or the link areas of Wadham, Balliol, or Hertford College for Think Like a Lawyer, by 2 December and 4 November 2022 respectively. We encourage applications from students taking a range of A Level subjects, including Humanities and Social Sciences; there are no prior subject or knowledge requirements for these programmes.

Wadham’s widening participation work, supported by our Access to Excellence programme, helps students from primary through to sixth form to find the right course and university for them. The College is linked with 11 local authorities, the highest number of any Oxbridge college, for this work.

In October 2022 we formally opened The Locke Access Centre in the Dr Lee Shau Kee Building. This purpose-built hub for our extensive school outreach work makes a powerful statement about Wadham’s commitment to access and to helping the very best students from across the country from diverse backgrounds to realise their potential.

"I’m delighted to be working in partnership with Barclays and Linklaters to help address under-representation. These programmes allow us to take a life-cycle approach to widening participation, targeting sustained support to help pupils progress to competitive university courses; undergraduates to thrive on course; and graduates to progress into rewarding careers.”

Dr Hugh Munro, Tutor for Access, Wadham College

“Improving the socio-economic diversity of the legal profession requires action at every stage of the career cycle, starting from school level. The programme will look to ensure that talented candidates can achieve their full potential and aren’t excluded before they even have a chance to embark on their legal career just because they may be from a less privileged background. An individual’s socio-economic circumstances should not be a barrier to a successful career in the law.”

Fionnghuala Griggs, trainee recruitment partner at Linklaters

“Diversity of thought is critical in the corporate and investment banking industry. To ensure Barclays continues to have a diverse talent pool, we are committed to programmes like Access to Banking, which reach into schools to encourage talented students from under-represented communities to think about careers in corporate and investment banking. Showing these students that they can succeed in our sector is key to expanding the diversity, equity and inclusion agenda in corporate and investment banking.”

Pete Mason, Co-Head of Capital Markets EMEA at Barclays Corporate & Investment Bank

Wadham College

Founded in 1610, Wadham College is one of the largest colleges that make up the University of Oxford. The College is proud to have been in the vanguard of efforts to broaden access to Oxford for many years. Wadham is reaching thousands of secondary school pupils through its outreach work every year.

Linklaters LLP

Linklaters is a global law firm with a longstanding commitment to advancing social mobility in the legal sector as one of the global priorities within its Diversity and Inclusion strategy. Think Like a Lawyer followed the launch of Making Links Discovery, a bespoke programme the firm created to open up access to a career in the law for 16 to 18 year old students across the UK.

https://www.linklaters.com/en

Barclays Corporate & Investment Bank

Barclays is a consumer and wholesale bank, supporting individuals and small businesses through our consumer banking services, and larger businesses and institutions through our corporate and investment banking services. Our Corporate and Investment Bank is comprised of the Investment Banking, International Corporate Banking, Global Markets and Research businesses; it provides money managers, financial institutions, governments, supranational organisations and corporate clients with services and advice for their funding, financing, strategic and risk management needs. For further information about Barclays Corporate and Investment Bank, please visit www.cib.barclays or follow on social media @BarclaysCIB.