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Unicorn Jobs - committed to addressing diversity in the workplace

Information about Unicorn Jobs’ work to encourage and enable more diversity in the PR and corporate communications sector through the Brunswick Internship Programme

Addressing diversity

Unicorn Jobs is an equal opportunities recruiter. We are concerned with just one thing – finding the best person for a job. We would never discriminate against any candidate on the grounds of age, gender, sexuality, disability, religious beliefs, race or ethnic background.

More than that, we know that people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are under-represented in the public relations and corporate communication sector, especially on the agency side, and we have taken proactive steps to address this problem.

We believe that a key reason why this group is under-represented is because talented people from those communities have not been encouraged to consider working in this sector, or provided with the skills and knowledge required to launch a PR career.

Brunswick Internship Programme

To address this problem, Unicorn Jobs teamed up with leading financial communications company Brunswick, our sister company Taylor Bennett, and the University Of East London, to devise a unique 10-week training programme for talented graduates who are excited by the PR industry. The first of these programmes was staged in Autumn 2008.

Through formal training and hands-on work experience, participants were equipped with the skills, knowledge and contacts to embark on a successful corporate communications career. The programme was coordinated and delivered by Unicorn Jobs and its team of experienced trainers and careers experts. Specialist training in corporate communications was also provided by Brunswick practitioners and Taylor Bennett staff.

We also recognise that not everyone can afford to do unpaid work experience. For that reason, Brunswick Interns received a training allowance throughout the 10-week programme.

We positively encouraged applications from graduates with minority ethnic backgrounds. The University Of East London was selected as our academic partner because of the large percentage of its students who come from this group. UEL is a leader in widening participation in higher education to students from under-represented groups: more than 40% of their students are from poorer socio-economic backgrounds and more than 60% are from ethnic minorities.

2008 and beyond

Six participants took part in the first Brunswick Internship Programme which ran between October and December 2008 – Zubair Ahmed, Elaina Ifill, Michael Omudu, Olayinka Olagunju, Avani Patel and Miriam Wachira (pictured above). They were selected from nearly 200 applicants through a rigorous selection process, including a full-day assessment centre. There’s a short report on their time on the programme here

The 2008 programme was a huge success, and Unicorn Jobs, Brunswick and Taylor Bennett are committed to running the internship programme on an annual basis, and in doing so to discover more of the stars of the PR industry of the future while making a modest but significant practical contribution to diversity in the communications industry.

More information

You can read the Brunswick Internship Programme prospectus – outlining the topics covered in the programme here