To Think that Grad & Apprenticeships are now only for Diversity Candidates

The good ones won't. Because contrary to the hyperbole, these schemes don't close the door to employment for white males, they just increase the competition by giving other people an opportunity to be part of it. White males with the most to offer will still be selected into jobs. All that will happen is the weaker amongst them, who would have scraped in for want of more competition, will fall off the end. This should have the positive affect in future of reducing the number of mediocre middle aged white men occupying positions they are not that great at. Of whom there are many.

Your white, middle class son does not (statistically and almost certainly in practice) need the sort of step up to employment that internships can provide.
It’s also possible that big corporates are finally realising that most of their problems over the years have been caused by their white, middle class male employees and they would now like to employ slightly fewer of them.

Surely this has the potential for ageism though - yes the office might be full of middle aged white blokes who are vastly overrepresented, but why should new grads pay the price.

You got a job that required experience and qualifications, despite not having them? Or you got an entry level job that didn't require them with an employer who valued the life experience of raising a child as a teen, with the maturity and resilience that may imply, over academic qualifications? If you're determined to see this as 'diversity gone mad!!!' I can't stop you. But you may well be selling yourself short and it was more likely the potential they saw in you as a person that got you the job.

There is no problem. DH and I are Indian. My DH has had a successful corporate career in the UK. Works very hard, works long hours and makes around £130k in a big 4 organisation.

My DC gave succeeded in their studies and been to top unis. One of them succeeded in getting a very competitive research position at their university.

We've experienced occasional racist hate by unscrupulous people but never found the whole of society holding us back. The data actually shows us British Indians having higher GCSEs and higher earning than the white British.

I said I was struggling to get a job because I had no qualifications or previous work experience because I was a teen mum who dropped out of secondary school. Then I said I was bisexual and mixed race on an application and finally got a job could just be a coincidence for sure but I’m just telling you what happened.

And it’s a large national company I work for.

@5128gap Journalists for starters. Charities like the Sutton Trust. Minorities groups. Any group commenting and researching into social mobility. University researchers. Government researchers. Anyone with a voice that doesn’t like the status quo! Loads of people look into employment trends and social mobility!

So. You live in a small town in the UK and were unable to get a job, because all of the employers had introduced diversity quotas to 'look good' to the homogeneous community of the small town? Who have somehow despite not 'being very diverse', inexplicably decided that giving jobs to unqualified POC and people who aren't heterosexual is more important than complying with the EA? I'm...surprised. To say the least.

The uk and as someone else said it’s for optics a company can make itself look good by having a diverse workforce.
@Bambamhoohoo it’s not bullshit just my experience I’m not claiming to have a brilliant job either it’s just an ok job considering I was a secondary school drop out with no work experience. It could just be a coincidence for sure I’m just saying my experience I said I was bisexual and mixed race and finally got a job.

I see no point in being honest on forms that ask such questions unless it’s medical related, having a “diverse workforce” is seen as a good thing so it can only be a positive to be as “diverse” a person as possible

Your white, middle class son does not (statistically and almost certainly in practice) need the sort of step up to employment that internships can provide.

It’s also possible that big corporates are finally realising that most of their problems over the years have been caused by their white, middle class male employees and they would now like to employ slightly fewer of them.

Criticism from who?

@5128gap It’s for an optics reason. You don’t want the criticism that you recruit identikit white people. So you shift perception of recruitment by apprenticeships and a certain number of interns being from the minorities you wish to encourage.

Recruiters should not ask about sexual orientation before employment and then it’s not standard as far as I know. Questionnaires are often by consent and not obligatory.

What country are you in? If US, diversity quotas are illegal. If UK, they are likely to be unlawful under the EA. So it would be very surprising if all the businesses in a random small town had for some reason decided to break the law in order to increase their diversity.

Even for those taking a quota/ target/ tick box approach, companies are unlikely to have quotas to fill for sexuality.
That’s how it’s so clearly bullshit. Absolutely no one is scrambling to hire a bisexual person.

I live in a small town with not much “diversity” it could be they have quotas to fill which would be much harder here or it could just be a coincidence either way I’m just telling you my experience. Also how old are you and your gay friends? I’m early 20s if you’re 40+ talking about your friends being discriminated fair enough it’s a different world now

If someone is willing to hire someone with fuck all qualifications and experience because they’re ‘bisexual’ then that’s on them to deal with whatever the hell incompetent fool turns up for work.
As someone who IS actually gay, I can tell you that I and MANY more gay people I know would NOT declare that on any work form or job application because it is much more likely to discrimination than to getting the interview of job.
But as your little - ‘ I said I was a one legged, Muslim, lesbian and got a job as a top judge despite never even doing Law’ - comment show people are so ignorant they really won’t understand why gay people pass for straight or non- white people might find it easier to pass for white etc

Believe what you want but I’m never putting that I’m white or straight on a form again

I’ll take ‘Things that didn’t happen’ for $500…

Mixed race is an ambiguous term I have a friend who was raised by her Philippino grandma all her other grandparents are white. She looks white you would not know she’s mixed race but she is.

When my child started school I found myself getting rejected from every job I went for I was 20 and had no prior work experience or qualifications after being a teen mum high school drop out.
Then I put on an application I was mixed race and bisexual and straight away got the job and it’s a pretty cushty one considering my non existent cv.

Anyway could be a coincidence.

It is illegal in the UK to discriminate based on race/ sex.

There are certain training and development opportunities aimed at supporting and helping people from disadvantaged backgrounds to get apprenticeships or jobs, because POC are still underrepresented in many industries.

If you believe that your son has been unfairly discriminated against because he is a white man then he is entitled to sue the company for race/ sex discrimination.

He will look pretty silly though if it turns out that the issue is that it's a very competitive market and that everyone, regardless of their background, is struggling right now.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/taking-action-about-discrimination/

Oh God. Yes let’s all forget decades of evidence that ‘merit’ is a completely subjective judgement.

I'm sure they have their reasons. And I can't imagine for a moment that the reasons are to be kinder to POC and women, even if this poses a risk to the business by selecting people who are not 'the best'. In fact I think its ridiculous to expect people to believe that the leaders of industry and business would put kind and fair ahead of profit. If they're doing it, it's for a business reason.

That's good then. People should just hire on merit alone. If I ran a company I wouldn't bother measuring and tracking diversity metrics at all.

Fair enough. Unfortunately for you (and fortunately for those who disagree with you) some employers clearly do see the problem with it. Possibly because many business and organisations can see they have much room for improvement and have sensibly decided to give other people an opportunity to see if they could do better. Frankly, in some cases, it would be hard to do worse.

I've never met one who was so I don't think you've much to worry about on that score.

No one should be ashamed to a) be white and b) me a man.