Fifteen Warwick students selected as part of Lloyds Scholars programme

This year Lloyds Banking Group has selected fifteen Warwick students for their prestigious Lloyds Scholars programme. The scheme was launched as part of Lloyd’s Help Britain Prosper plan, which supports social mobility, small businesses and first-time housing buyers in the UK. Currently 45 Warwick students take part in the programme, and Lloyds has committed to helping a total of 720 students, across eight universities, by 2017.

Lloyds has invested £17m into this scheme. The scheme is a prime example of how a major UK firm is investing in corporate social responsibility and shows Lloyd’s strong commitment to becoming more socially responsible. It can also be seen as a bid to improve their image since their government bailout.

The main aim of the scheme is to give new opportunities to gifted students from lower income households. The students selected to become Lloyds Scholars receive financial aid and places on paid internships.

They are also allocated business mentors to help them to gain employable skills. In return, the students are obliged to perform at least 100 hours of voluntary work for each year they are at university.

Lloyds is very proud of the scheme; Richard Cooper, their Head of Education and Employability, said: “We are so excited to welcome this year’s new Scholars to our programme. We look forward to nurturing their talents throughout their degrees and helping them to develop both academically and professionally.”

Lloyds Scholars have no obligation to join the firm; however 68% of students who graduate from the scheme gain a place on Lloyd’s competitive graduate scheme.

Hence it can be seen that the mentoring given on the scheme is effective at producing employable graduates. Overall the Lloyd’s Scholars programme has been a success in opening up access to professional graduate roles as well as improving social mobility. Warwick students on the scheme have great opportunities ahead of them.