SCHOOL leavers are taking on jobs in the City of London for the summer to see what the working world has to offer even before they start university. The 85 teenagers have decided to get a head start in the competitive job market by getting paid work placements for the holiday

SCHOOL leavers are taking on jobs in the City of London for the summer to see what the working world has to offer even before they start university.

The 85 teenagers from East London have decided to get a head start in the competitive job market even though they haven’t yet started university courses by getting paid work placements on a business traineeship programme.

Trainees are drawn from schools and sixthform colleges in the City fringe’ boroughs such as Tower Hamlets and Hackney, which the Square Mile is now recognising as an untapped area for new, talented employees.

GOING RATE

They are working throughout the summer for up to 13 weeks on placement, earning the going rate, in some of the Square Mile’s most renowned companies and organisations including the Bank of England and the City of London Corporation itself.

The City Corporation’s policy & resources chairman Stuart Fraser said: “This programme means students don’t come out of three years at university bewildered by job prospects.

“They go into their degree course with an eye on the end goal and the sort of career they want.”

The 16 to 18-year-old trainees on the programme are attending an introduction to the art of networking’ being held at Allen & Overy international law firm at Spitalfields in London’s East End.