Access to education
We feel an obligation to help young people achieve their academic potential, especially those from our local communities. Our efforts range from mentoring programmes, and numeracy and reading initiatives with schools, to governorship roles and fully-funded bursaries.
How do we share what we’ve learned?
We go back to school. We seek out initiatives that help young people develop their skills, confidence and wellbeing. Such initiatives generally create opportunities for volunteering, so that our people can ‘put something back’ in a very direct sense.
We also provide financial support. But sometimes it’s simply the use of our facilities and resources that’s most valuable – hence our 2008 award from Young Enterprise, the UK's leading business and enterprise education charity, for Best In-Kind Support.
We have much to gain. Another award – a Power in Partnership Big Tick from Business in the Community – went to the Clare Partnership for Schools programme that we support in East London. But an even more rewarding accolade came from one of the scheme’s first participants to graduate from the University of Cambridge. His career choice: to join us as a trainee lawyer.
Mentoring at Washington’s law-based high school.
The Thurgood Marshall Academy (TMA) in Washington, DC was established by local lawyers and law students in 2002 to provide children with a first-class education. Sounds elitist? On the contrary: TMA is a public charter high school educating the city’s most disadvantaged students. We’ve been supporters from the start, contributing over $150,000 and creating a one-year, fully-funded in-house programme co-ordinator position. All the Academy’s graduates have been accepted to college. More initiatives