“All You Have To Do Is Give Us A Chance,” Says The Black Apprentice.

Key Sentence:

• Gold Oyelade, 22, recently graduated from the University of Warwick and is already working in investment banking.
• Gold received an internship with the City of Evercore through a program called 10,000 Black Apprentices.

The program Black Apprentice, which aims to create future black business leaders, has just announced that 2,000 positions in top companies are open to being filled. Blacks who are underrepresented in senior business positions “just need an opportunity,” Gold said.

While Gold said Evercore “cared a lot about its employees” before joining the 10,000 black interns. He noted that there were barriers to entry into the company. Gold was born also raised in Brixton, and although he studied at Russell University. He and his black friends found it difficult to get the internships they thought were easier for white peers. “I had to prove myself,” he said.

“Where on paper we appear to be of equal quality for one reason or another, internships are not a good thing.”

This is partly during Black Apprentice to a lack of networking – you don’t know the right people. “Your network is your asset” alive and well and can be detrimental to people. Who haven’t had the opportunity or don’t know someone in a leadership position at the company,” he said.

The lack of black corporate executives could undermine people’s confidence in trying to join, he said. “We don’t see people like us feeling accepted or good enough at these companies to take on these roles,” he said. He said that some companies also need to consider their treatment of black trainees, especially those from the working class.

“There may be indications that young blacks are not as smart or ready for this role,” he said. “Black people can afford – you have to give them a chance.”

Now it’s up to us to hold that role, to grow, so we create opportunities and paths for people to follow,” he said.

“It’s our job to persevere, work hard and know that it’s possible.”

The 10,000 black apprentice program aims to take 2,000 apprentices per year into the company for five years. According to program director Esther Odejimi-Uzokwe, the initiative was developed by 100 black interns. And grew because of the company’s interests she wanted to join.

It includes organizations ranging from city companies like Goldman Sachs. And HSBC to technical giants Amazon, Facebook, and Google to sports giants like Manchester United. Odejimi-Uzokwe said the program was needed to create future black leaders in London and beyond.

He said the killing of George Floyd and the push for the Black Lives Matter movement had “blinked the light” in many companies and put diversity on the company’s plan. He saw firsthand that black people were underrepresented in finance and decided to try to change that.