Our Community Work

We believe we can play a vital role in developing the workforce of the future and have developed a programme of activities to help bring local communities and employers closer together.

Educational schemes
One such relationship is with Camden School for Girls, the inner city secondary school. For the last four years our staff have volunteered their time to mentor groups of teenagers throughout their vital GCSE year. Feedback has shown that the girls have benefited enormously. Our girls have grown in confidence and seen their grades improve immeasurably. There have been some real success stories, with girls striving for new goals and ambitions. We’re particularly pleased to say many of the bright young things from our very first year are still in contact with us and have decided to go onto university. We also work closely with a number of other schools running CV workshops, interview training and even hosting fashion shows to advise students on what to wear in the workplace.

Work Experience
We offer yearly internships via The Brokerage. The Brokerage is an innovative partnership which gives inner City students an insight into the working environment and expectations of employers via ten week traineeships. We were thrilled when our internship programme in 2004 was judged to have provided one of the best career experiences to date offering challenging and varied work. The Brokerage subsequently named us Employer of the Year and, just recently, our 2007 intern, Angela Moses, won Intern of the Year.

A Wide Influence
Our partnerships and commitment to the community also span sport, the arts and charities.

• Every year we raise over a quarter of a million pounds for charity and community projects. Our staff make a donation every month through their salary and the rest is raised through annual auctions, wine tasting and sporting events. 
• We sponsor Scottish rugby team, Watsonians FC, and have helped fund the introduction of a rugby youth development programme through George Watsonians College and the Edinburgh community. Since then hundreds of young aspiring players have benefited. 
• We also support a number of young emerging artists, galleries and institutions as well as the Royal Academy and Tate.