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WIBF partnership with GAIN (Girls Are INvestors)

news published date 29 June 2022
  • News

WIBF is delighted to announce a new partnership with GAIN (Girls Are INvestors). GAIN is a charity set up by investment professionals to improve gender diversity in asset management by building a talent pipeline of entry-level female candidates.

The new partnership between GAIN (Girls Are INvestors) and WIBF aims to help both organisations recruit more women to the financial services sector, and it is a great charity to partner with given its programmes, which include educational presentations and internships. GAIN’s work was driven initially by its four female founders, who had noticed the numbers of women applying to starter roles in investment management had dropped to 20%, for reasons that were often hard to define. The four decided to build their own talent pipeline, working away diligently at the sides of their desks and quietly on Sunday afternoons. Now four years later, they have built to a charity of note, and an industry-supported intern programme that will see 100 new entrants this year.

Investment managers look to invest clients’ money to deliver a positive return, using expertise and research-based insights. But it is an increasingly important sector given the industry can help address serious societal issues, like climate change. However, stasis means that greater diversity, which in turn would help address more issues, is still not the status quo.

The main message is that if you have an agile and creative mind, you could have a future in investment management. It doesn’t matter if you studied languages, literature or land use at college. School leavers don’t know that, of course, and neither do universities. So, GAIN now works directly with 35 universities in the UK, and counting, to help their students understand this.

Diversity of opinion and views, including that of female talent, is also vital to the future health of the UK’s financial services more broadly, as Amanda Blanc made clear in her recent Woman’s Hour interview. We should all work together where we can. To this end, WIBF is now partnering with GAIN.

WIBF members may, for example, want to use the free training programmes GAIN developed during the pandemic to inspire girls to intern or apply for jobs. So, if you would like to convince a local school, or your alma mater, to host a 6th Form presentation with GAIN, let new CEO Tanya Tracey know.

And we can help introduce more companies to their programmes. Volunteer and co-founder Anne-Marie Fleurbaaij flagged some of the companies hiring new GAIN interns have never even recruited directly from university before, and GAIN can help. Meanwhile Tracey believes GAIN takes away the ‘headache’ of recruiting given “we’re talking to the candidates; we’re putting up the individuals who match their criteria.”

To find out more, please watch the below clips of President, Anna Lane’s interview with Tanya Tracey and Anne-Marie Fleurbaaij.

What has GAIN achieved – pivoting in the pandemic

How YOU can get involved

To get involved –

  • Corporate applications to host a GAIN intern in 2023 are open until 15th July – apply here
  • Sign up to get involved with GAIN as an industry volunteer here.
  • Firms interested in becoming a GAIN sponsor can find out more about working with us here.