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

But when these partnerships are only available in cities then being from ‘the inner city’ becomes a privilege over those in poor provincial towns.

I think all this is highlighting is how few good opportunities there are compared to the number of people able and willing to do them.

I don't think companies would seek diversity if it wasnt in thier own interests as I dont believe they are forced to. This makes it very difficult to change.

I suppose young white men (working class?) are suffering due to an over supply of old white men in companies that decuded they needed diversity.

Take a look at the Bank of England website, they are hiring for a range of internships and apprenticeships (if that fits with your sons’s skillset and career goals).

it depends on how they consider the answer though doesn’t it?
When I was 15 my dad was a Plumber and my mum a house wife. That’s not privileged, but it’s not likely to be getting me any DEI points either.

Op is talking specifically about summer internships and apprenticeships. Both of these routes are generally a core part of diversity initiatives. Internships because they give candidates the necessary soft skills - confidence, familiarity with workplace norms - that they may not have if they don't have family or other role models in professional roles. Apprenticeships because they are often the only viable route in for applicants from poverty who cannot afford unpaid volunteering or university.

Graduate schemes are separate and much less likely to be for social mobility/diversity candidates only. In fact I don't think I've ever come across a whole scheme that was restricted in this way, they are usually open to anyone.

I didn’t? Are you looking at the post I responded to?

seems like we have ourselves in a confusion 😂

Yes yes the banking and insurance sectors are really well known for having hardly any white men in them 🙄

I am not going to read all the responses as I have more than filled my quota of nauseating MN bigotry for the day. However, I wonder if the OP might wish to consider that her son is just not as qualified for the placements as the successful candidates, rather than jumping to the conclusion that employers have hired an inferior applicant simply because they are black, female, poor or disabled.
Please tell me your not encouraging your son to develop massive chips on both shoulders about this, becoming that guy who always bangs on about how hard it is being white, male and financially comfortable in this unfair woke world is not going to help him win friends or influence people!

The most underperforming segment today in the UK amongst young people are white working class males

The OP says the list of qualifiers includes social mobility, which presumably includes class.

I know the CS also has questionnaires with class identifiers - yours parents jobs/homes etc...

Isn't this to identify working class applicants? And if it is, why would a white working class boy not be selected, on the basis of his class when 'diversity hire' is supposedly to disadvantage white middle class men?

Or if we are smarter, it"s because we aren't well rounded, have no hobbies and work too hard. But if we don't work hard, we are incompetent diversity hires!

Catch 22.

But then contradict yourself by saying that group isn’t exclusively white?

@Bambamhoohoo it’s a stupid question though as unless asked for proof people are bound to dumb down occupations! I told dd to just leave it blank, though if I remember rightly dh did have a period of unemployment at that time - kerching!

OP, do you have any idea how much harder life is for ethnic minorities or disabled people? They are just as intelligent as anyone else.

Also, neurodivergent people have skills that others don't have. GCHQ actively seeks out dyslexic (or was it ADHD?) staff members because they tend to be inately better at solving puzzles.

Sorry I missed this -

“Also, the posters sneering about Oxbridge… you do realise that most graduates now are from state schools? What is the point of working hard to get there, doing well and then being told by some DEI bod that “Oh no, you’ve now passed through the gates of privileged twitdom so therefore it is my pleasure to kick you back down” ?”

what does this mean? Most graduates are from state schools in the whole population of graduates?
Of course they are, 96% of the population are educated in state schools!

if you mean most graduates of Oxbridge are from state schools it would be good to see the stats

So you if you see a successful brown or black person you assume they are more likely to have got there as a diversity hire, than on merit? Because that is exactly the sort of racist thinking that schemes aimed at those students are needed to address - because some white people cannot fathom that we are just as clever and hard working as they are, let alone smarter or harder working. And so we (and women too) are hired at lower rates than white male candidates when posts are open to all, because of the assumptions inherent in racist and sexist thinking.

14 is more about the support she might’ve had through her own education - maybe she had parents who worked in Asda until their children left school at which time they got a degree and started working as a teacher. It doesn’t change that their children grew up without the professional support and resource the parent can now provide.

Yes but I do think we’re mixing up “diversity hire” with these community partnerships.

community partnerships aren’t about hunting the poor. They are about the workforce reflecting the local area or the customer base.

ergo- a rich Indian person whose parents are Brain surgeons who lives in a 5 bed townhouse in Hackney and goes to the local comp being involved in community initiatives isn’t a failure of the partnership to “hunt the poor”

Dd was asked on a form what her parents did when she was 14. I suppose 14 was picked to weed out those who could say their parents were unemployed because they were retired!

As others have noted, it’s always a tool to bash the pesky middle classes. Too well off and ordinary to be “underprivileged” and nowhere near the sphere of private education and “contacts”.

Also, the posters sneering about Oxbridge… you do realise that most graduates now are from state schools? What is the point of working hard to get there, doing well and then being told by some DEI bod that “Oh no, you’ve now passed through the gates of privileged twitdom so therefore it is my pleasure to kick you back down” ?

The poster I was responding to had said:

“Was it that other people didn't apply or did your company specifically select white Oxbridge (Oxbridge these days, btw, is actually really quite diverse) these candidates?”

we have already acknowledged that oxbridge isnt all white. We were discussing what selection criteria could’ve made these people rise to the top of the applicant list (as usual) and I suggested the privilege that got them to Oxbridge in the first place.

I’m sure your son got where he is by merit, but there is so much discrimination against white, middle class applicants that anyone in his position is now often suspected of being a diversity hire. It’s the natural result of all the diversity hiring that definitely is taking place.

‘If your son has applied for over 100 posts as you set out in your OP, then that demonstrates that a) he has not been precluded from applying from many, many, roles and b) he isn’t as good as the other candidates.’

he also needs to look at what he’s applying for and actually decide whether or not he’s right or has the right skills for that role. AI is killing entry level professional jobs too… so there’s that.

Our offices and industry is still stuffed to the gills with MC white men - does that re-assure you? The new hires for senior positions over the last year have been overwhelmingly white men from MC +’ background, and my new-ish white, male manager has just been given a huge promotion by other white men for - as far as I can tell- pulling off the suit trousers/white or blue shirt look very well and being able to talk incessantly about his Strava runs. His marathon training. His triathlon training.
Not an idea or creative thought to be found in his head TBH but he does sound and look like a ‘man in charge’

Your DS will be fine. Unless he has an unfortunate personality???

But my point was these initiatives take place local to the companies, and companies are more likely to be in cities (with higher ethnic minority populations) than in provincial towns.

I work in a company that runs one of these types of schemes. The issue is, we were getting literally thousands of applications for a small number of places. The scheme was hugely onerous for those involved in shortlisting and it felt unfair to applicants taking time to apply with so little chance of success. Also the resulting hires were not diverse at all. We ended up taking a decision to restrict it to particular demographic groups who were underrepresented in the company. This improved the operation of the scheme and had a positive impact on the pipeline of permanent hires into the company. So while I understand your disappointment on behalf of your son, I can also see the other side.