Monday 21st March saw the first event of its kind – ‘Unlock Your Potential’ held by UBS.  It was organised and run for 70 carefully-selected first year female students interested in investment banking, and it’s aim was to help them to ‘unlock their potential’. Steering away from dry, corporate presentations; UBS wanted to give the girls a rare opportunity to learn how to be successful, charismatic business women.

Sessions were run by comedian Deborah Frances-White, on ‘how to be a charismatic woman in a man’s world’ and personal branding guru, Jim Harvey on ‘how to build your own personal brand’. These sessions were very well received, with the audience buzzing with excitement and interest. It certainly opened our eyes to some new ways of presenting ourselves.

To tie in with the theme ‘Unlock Your Potential’, each attendee was given a key. For a lucky few, this key unlocked one of six locked prize boxes which were on display. Among the prizes were a Marc Jacobs handbag, a luxury spa day,  a London Eye trip, a make up session and theatre vouchers. Congratulations to the girls who won!! I can safely say it was a very successful event and this was shown by some very happy faces all round.

A new ‘Super University’ could be on the cards for Wales as plans are made to merge three of their universities; University of Wales Institute Cardiff, Swansea Metropolitan University and Trinity Saint David in Carmarthen. Such universities haven’t been highly rated recently and last December the Welsh education minister gave them an ultimatum – ‘adapt or die’.

At the moment these three universities already work closely together and all students who attend receive University of Wales degrees. If plans go ahead they will become the third largest university in Wales after Cardiff and Glamorgan. Watch this space for the up and coming Welsh Super University …

Yet another award win for BarCap, hurrah! For the second year running, Barclays Capital have won Rate My Placement’s award for best diversity in work experience. With a little help from us here at Stafford Long, BarCap recruited 376 interns in 2010 representing 99 different universities and 45 different nationalities. We worked on a range of campaigns to encourage diversity within work experience, such as No City Limits, an insight day for women interested in investment banking. Hopefully our winning streak roll on til next year!!

Here at Stafford Long we’re proud to support this years National Graduate Recruitment Awards for the second successive year. The annual event brings together the very best UK graduate employers and agencies at a special night of awards for graduate campaigns – judged via a massive student survey and panel of undergraduates. It’s definitely a night to look forward to… and fingers crossed we might take away the Diversity Recruitment award for our work with Barclays Capital!

RBS recently ran a successful and insightful event to encourage female students to enter the world of banking. 150 female students from all over the UK gathered at a central London location to find out about a career in Global Banking and Markets.

The eager ladies were whisked around an action packed day including a ‘My life as an investment banker’ seminar, an ‘Ask the expert’, a no-nonsense advice for application session and a very glamorous ‘Lunch with the Ladies’. The event was drawn to a close by a very exciting fashion show displaying this season’s fashion in the City including an exclusive makeup master class.

RBS’s aim of the event was to encourage more female students to apply for their graduate and internship schemes to broaden their graduate talent pool which, like the rest of investment banking, still remains heavily male dominated.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you have a great 2011!

So after weeks of student protests, it seems to have all been in vain. Government voted by a majority of 21 that they would raise tuition fees up to three times the current amount from September 2012. Chaos followed shortly after the announcement once again distracting from the matter at hand. The scary realisation for students and nation as a whole is the effect this will have on education once headlines about hooliganism and rioting has died down. Even before the decision was made there was an immense uncertainty as to what the proposal would actually do to the current system. The main points covered were the massive increase in fees and an increase in maintenance loans, with this students do not have to start paying back until they earn over £21,000.

But, the big question is, would this actually work?

The Universities MP David Willetts has stated that it will help the poorest of the poor, generally for those students from family who have an income below £10,000. This is a very small percentage of the population, what happens to the students who come from families earning under £30,000? I highly doubt they too would be able to afford the rise in tuition fees. It looks more like damage limitation from MPs trying to assure students, the situation is not as grim as first thought. Does it do enough though? The incentive would mean that for a 3 year course a student could still pay up to £18,000 which is almost double what it costs today.

Now that the future of education has been changed, it is time for some much needed clarity.

What a week it has been in London! A 24-hour tube strike was followed by more student protests and capped off with a surprisingly early flurry of SNOW. We at Greenlight are not particularly fond of snow due to how inconsiderate and badly timed it is!!! Such adverse weather conditions forced us to postpone our ‘Open’ event. Everyone on the team was disappointed to postpone what promised to be a groundbreaking and inspirational day.

On the bright side, it means that we will have this event to look forward to in the New Year!!! ‘Open’ is for students who are interested in a career in law but feel that due to a disability or other perceived barrier that law may not be the career for them. Being hosted by five leading law firms (Allen & Overy, Hogan Lovells, Clifford Chance, Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer) it will be an excellent opportunity for these students to gain insight into a law career and the different types of work environments.

Happy Winter!

Another very busy week for Greenlight, we held our ‘Inside and Out’ event. This is a diversity project to give LGBT students an insight into the world of investment banking. Unhampered by tube strikes the event was a huge success with both students and bank representatives enjoying this opportunity to network. On the night we had guest-speaker Ruth Hunt from charity Stonewall and International rugby player Gareth Thomas. Both shared their life experiences and how it was affected by their sexuality. The event also had a panel of various senior figures from some of the largest investment banks in the world. This gave students an idea into the life of a LGBT person working within the investment banking industry. There was also plenty of time for students to network with bank representatives and learn about the life and culture within these banks. All in all, the event proved to be an enjoyable and informative evening for all involved!!

The Greenlight team now has two weeks to focus on our last event of 2010. It is the launch of the ‘Open’ event which gives disabled students an insight into the world of law.

Students took to the streets of London last Wednesday in what has been one of the biggest and most controversial protests in years. 50,000 students marched in anguish at plans to raise tuition fees to as high as £9000 by 2012. Whilst most were peaceful protesters, it was the minority that have overshadowed and tarnished the main purpose of the march. Those who strayed from the planned march path occupied the lobby of 30 Millbank and clashed with police in violent riots. Many of the headlines condemned the actions of the minority that started fires and flung bottles and eggs at police. Sadly this has undermined the original intention of the protests which was to oppose the ridiculously high cost of tuition fees proposed by the coalition government.

Needless to say, exercising violence to demonstrate a point of view is neither fair nor effective and only serves to highlight irrational and yob-like behaviour. It has also detracted from the issue at hand and hampered the voice of those students genuinely concerned with their future in education. It may have demonstrated the anger they feel towards such proposed reforms though they have failed to manage this anger in the productive manner as the march was meant to. The fear is that this has given greater reason to make universities more exclusive and elitist by raising tuition fees.

It is imperative that once the negativity towards students has died down in the media that attention is once again placed on the contentious issue of tuition fees. There is a real worry that those students from a lesser economic background cannot afford to study as the extensive costs would be unsustainable. I am in agreement that the institution of university needs to become relevant again but making universities more elitist will not solve this problem rather create a larger divide between rich and poor. Instead the government needs to consider making universities more selective through an individual’s own achievements.