Bridging the gap between education and employment: Haaris’ journey
Building career readiness skills
When Haaris first joined the Bridge to M&G programme, a programme that provides young people with an insight into the world of financial services and the varied career opportunities available at M&G, his understanding of apprenticeships and financial services companies was limited.
Over the course of the programme however, through workshops, coaching, and a summer residential, his understanding of both apprenticeships and the financial services industry increased exponentially. He realised that an apprenticeship might be a great way to launch his career, in addition to gaining structured training and qualifications.
Throughout the programme, Haaris was also able to build essential employability skills, gain confidence, and connect with professionals across the business. He gained valuable insights into M&G as a company, its culture and the wide range of career opportunities available.
Teamwork soon became one of Haaris’s core strengths, and communication his superpower, with the repeated opportunities to make presentations transforming his confidence until it became second nature.
The one-to-one coaching sessions with his mentor were also pivotal. Haaris received tailored guidance to refine his CV, which he admitted “was not the best” and needed quite a few changes to better showcase his skills and achievements.
Networking and applying his skills in a new environment
The residential was another highlight, giving Haaris the chance to apply his skills in a new setting. He later drew on these experiences to demonstrate problem solving and resilience in interviews. Finally, the opportunity to talk to apprentices and other employees at M&G had a significant impact on his understanding of what it was actually like to work there.
The skills Haaris developed didn’t just help him professionally, he credits the programme with preparing him to take on new opportunities both inside and outside of work. One such opportunity came while he was coaching at his local sports club and was interviewed by the BBC and other news outlets during a visit from the Mayor of London. Haaris was able to use his newfound superpower and believes that if he hadn’t developed his communication skills like he did on the Bridge programme, he may not have been able to do the interview.
From Bridge to M&G, to securing an M&G apprenticeship, to volunteering at a workshop
Perhaps most importantly of all, the Bridge to M&G programme gave Haaris the confidence and preparation he needed to secure a role as an Analytics Developer apprentice at M&G.
The Bridge programme helped me make sure that the role was right for me and gave me the exclusive opportunity to see the business up close and see what the day-to-day was like.
Then, only a year later, Haaris decided he wanted to come a full circle and return to help students, who were previously standing in his shoes, by volunteering as a mentor on the first two Finance Unlocked workshops (successor to the Bridge programme).
Haaris hosted an activity where students were able to invest a fictional £1,000,000 into an assortment of stocks of some of the largest companies in the world. Students chose to invest in their chosen organisations and Haaris had to devise a model to track the students’ portfolios against the real-world performance of the companies. This was a significant challenge, and Haaris’s first major project in his role as an apprentice at M&G.
When the time came to present the results, Haaris needed his communication superpowers once again, co-delivering an engaging and professional presentation detailing the performance of the students’ portfolios. From programme participant, to M&G apprentice, to acting as a role model for students aspiring to working for a financial services company, Haaris proved that the skills he developed on the Bridge programme were invaluable at every step on his journey.