Positive action programmes

In April 2008 Arts and Business briefed Rare on setting up a programme to help attract people from diverse backgrounds to the Arts sector. Rare worked with A&B to set up an internship programme, helping scope out what tasks interns might do, how they might be managed, and what success criteria might be used to assess their performance. We also considered incentive structure and, crucially, how successful interns might be best connected with full-time work at the end of the programme. Rare has recruited 8 interns for Arts and Business, each of whom is doing a three-month internship with the organisation.

WPP is one of the world’s most comprehensive marketing communications groups.

This year, WPP and Rare launched the Micro Fellowship scheme, a whirlwind version of the three year graduate Fellowship offered by WPP, designed to let students from ethnic minority backgrounds experience the worlds of marketing, advertising and communications from a true industry leader.

From the moment the opportunity was launched, the response was overwhelming and the programme has been a huge success.

Nine Micro Fellows spent three weeks in companies including Grey, Ogilvy and Landor, which are all part of the WPP parent group. Their experience was rounded off with an inspiring presentation evening during which the students pitched their ideas on how to motivate Britain into supporting the bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

The problem was (and still is) very real and very relevant; the Micro Fellows presented their findings to two top Football Association executives who had themselves been addressing the issue. They were looking to the Micro Fellows to inject some refreshing ideas into their work, and they were not disappointed.

One group asked the question ‘where will you be in eight years time?’ to translate individual aspirations for the future into a collective dream for the nation. Meanwhile X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent inspired another group to push the boundaries of reality TV. They proposed an online-only version that would be used to find the Beckham of 2018 and garner plenty of support for the bid along the way.

The judges commended all of the Micro Fellows, but in the end, it was the Football Flirt, the Football Friend and the Football Fanatic who won them over. The winning group used this trio of personalities to highlight the importance of a personalised approach to the problem. Congratulations to Adedoyin Sokan, Lotis Bautista and Ahava-Shaffra Gray-Read whose presentation was deemed the most impressive by the FA executives.