Last modified on Fri 12 Mar 2021 13.50 EST
Time is running out for FTSE 100 firms, including the British Airways owner IAG, BAE Systems and JD Sports to appoint at least one director of colour before a year-end deadline, after analysis showed nearly a fifth of the UK’s largest listed firms were led by all-white boardrooms.
An update from the Parker review, a government-backed report into ethnic diversity in boardrooms of stock market-listed companies, showed that 81 FTSE 100 firms had now met the voluntary target for “one by 2021”, up from 52 last year.
However, 19 companies, including the housebuilder Persimmon and the asset manager M&G have just nine months to meet the minimum standards set out by the review. Three of the 19 firms provided no data on their diversity levels, including Just Eat and the retailer Next.
My first job: what I wished Iâd known back then â¦
Two former apprentices review their first steps on their career ladders and reveal what they would have done differently
Finding time to study while also working in your first proper job can be stressful. Photograph: insta photos/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Finding time to study while also working in your first proper job can be stressful. Photograph: insta photos/Getty Images/iStockphoto
EkanshSharmaandGeorgiaTerry
Thu 11 Feb 2021 12.40 EST
Last modified on Thu 11 Mar 2021 06.06 EST
Ekansh Sharma, 23
Former digital and technology solutions degree apprentice at Accenture
I received an offer for my first choice university, but decided that higher education wasnât the right path. It was a risk, but almost four years on I can say itâs one that paid off.
I’ve been sobbing in my cab
It used to feel good being “essential”, and I took pride in my work during the first lockdown, as scary as it was to be out driving. But this lockdown feels a lot more selfish, less caring of others. There are several passengers travelling multiple times of the day to go one or two stops, or travelling for 90 mins down to the seafront to walk around the block for seven minutes to then go straight back. The amount of people still travelling for no reason led one of my colleagues to ask: “Do you ever look a passenger in the eye and wonder if they are going to be your killer?”