London Boroughsí Finance Trainee Scheme Launches Second Recruitment Campaign

The second London Boroughsí Finance Trainee Scheme has just been launched, to further tackle the under representation of ethnic minorities within the local government finance sector. GradWeb, the experts in graduate recruitment, have been appointed to manage the graduate recruitment campaign for the second year running.

This follows the success of last yearís inaugural programme that successfully recruited 30 finance trainees, of which forty percent are from ethnic minority backgrounds, against a target of 25%, onto the first London Boroughsí ìBe the future of public financeî campaign.

The initiative was launched jointly by 21 London Boroughs in September 2003 and was also the first time that London Boroughs had come together to jointly recruit finance trainees into their organisations.

ìBased on last yearís successful recruitment programme that attracted such a high percentage of ethnic minority candidates, the London Boroughs have decided to appoint GradWeb for the second year running, ì said Alan Steele, Borough Treasurer at Hounslow Borough Council, who is spearheading the campaign on behalf of the Society of London Treasurers.

ìGradWeb, who designed and managed the programme last year, achieved such outstanding results, that we had no hesitation in re-appointing them. We felt they would be able to leverage their experience from last year and introduce new ideas as they have much experience in the public sector,î he said.

In the second year the scheme has expanded; GradWebís brief is to recruit approximately 40 candidates by February 2005 and more boroughs have signed up to take part in the scheme this year.

The trainees, once appointed, will be employed by the local boroughs on a four year fixed term contract and will undertake a structured training programme based around the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA) qualification.

Said GradWeb Director, Katrina Rostrup:îWe were delighted to have achieved such strong results with such a high profile campaign last year and of course are extremely pleased to have been chosen for the second year. This is an important contract for us to win as it builds upon our existing client base in this sector and further demonstrates our ability to manage outsourced programmes of this scale.î