In total, 18 new permanent recruits have begun their careers at EY in the East of England, including 12 Graduates (+2 from 2019), six Business Apprentices (+1 from 2019). The Cambridge office also welcomed 12 ‘virtual’ Summer Interns and four Business Academy students (year 12 work experience), an increase of nine from 2019.
EY has welcomed a total of 1048 graduates and apprentices in the UK this year, reinforcing its commitment to invest in and nurture young talent, despite COVID-19. This compares to 1011 graduates and apprentices hired in 2019.
Eight hundred and fifty-four graduates and 194 apprentices have joined 14 EY offices. Edinburgh, Hull, Luton, Reading and Southampton have seen a particularly strong intake on last year, as EY continues to build out its talent pipeline across the country, with 45% of this year’s cohort joining EY’s regional offices.
In line with EY’s commitment to recruit a diverse pool of candidates, 43% of the student recruits this year are female (up from 39%, last year) and 41% are from ethnic minorities (up from 38%, last year), which includes 3% Black students (up from 2%, last year).
Stuart Wilkinson, Office Managing Partner at EY in the East of England (pictured), said: “I’m delighted to welcome the new student intake for 2020 to the business and really pleased to see that we’ve increased our numbers so considerably. This really reflects the growth of the Cambridge office and focus on winning new work from existing clients and gaining new clients across the East of England. It’s an exciting time to be joining EY Cambridge and I’m really pleased that we’ve managed to attract some of the best young talent from across the region to join the team.
“The Cambridge office provides a variety of Assurance, including tax and indirect tax, related services to some of the region’s most high-profile businesses and public sector organisations. Our Assurance team has welcomed the most new joiners, although, we’ve also welcomed a new graduate to our Tax team.
“Young talent is essential to our future business success and to shaping the skills we will need to remain competitive. I’m proud that we’ve maintained our commitment to student recruitment this year, despite COVID-19, and that we’ve honoured all the conditional offers we made prior to A-level results. At a time when many young people are facing a challenging labour market, our apprenticeship, graduate and internship programmes provide students and school leavers with a great opportunity to gain real hands-on experience, while also enhancing their skills and gaining a qualification."
As part of the firm’s efforts to attract more diverse students, 30% of the work experience places on the EY Foundation’s Smart Futures/Our Futures programmes will be offered to Black young people for the next five years from September 2021. Additionally, EY has set a target of offering at least 30% of places on its school leaver pathways to Black alumni from the Smart Futures and Our Futures programmes from next year.
EY has adjusted its student recruitment programmes for a virtual environment to ensure graduates and apprentices are still able to undertake client work and work towards their professional qualifications, despite COVID-19. EY has introduced more one-to-one touchpoints for students with their line managers and coaches and will be arming students with tools and tips on working in a virtual world. There will also be virtual networking sessions and more peer support groups.
Justine Campbell, EY UK&I Managing Partner for Talent, added: “Diversity and inclusion are key priorities for EY, and I’m pleased by the progress we’ve made to improve the diversity of our student intake this year. However, we know there’s more we can do which is why we introduced new diversity targets last year and announced a series of commitments on black representation in July.
“Many of the bright, young talent we recruit go on to become our future leaders and are a critical part of the business. We have another strong cohort joining us this year and wish them all the success in their careers with us.”