Discover Finance Wales launches with Principality Building Society and L&G

Social mobility is a big challenge for the Financial Services sector.  

89% of senior roles are held by people from higher socio-economic backgrounds. And 41% of those who worked in financial services had parents in the same sector, compared to a national average of just 12%.

It's a challenge so big that no single firm can solve it on their own.

The collective solution…

Shaped by industry, Discover Finance was launched in 2024 to widen access into the sector by offering multi-firm work insights programmes for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds: A single cohort of students rotates to visit a different firm's office on each day. This approach means they can explore the different subsectors that make up Financial Services, learn valuable career skills and be empowered to make informed decisions about their career next steps.

…launched in Wales this Spring!  

This February we took Discover Finance to Cardiff, officially launching Discover Finance Wales with Founding Partners: L&G and Principality Building Society, Wales’ largest building society. 25 students attended the work experience, taking time out of their half terms to spend time at our host firms and learn about career pathways into the sector - and students got great value and insight from their time across the 2 firms!

• 96% said the event developed my understanding of different types of careers which they were not aware of before.
• 88% of attendees filled out an Expression of Interest form to find out more about early talent roles at the host companies.
• 90% agreed that Discover Finance made them more likely to consider a career in this industry.
• 91% said that event has made me more likely to consider a career in this company in the future.

We encouraged applications from students from lower socio-economic background and saw strong diversity represented across attendees, in terms of both gender (52% identified as female) and ethnicity (80% identified as from a minority ethnic background).

We'll be coming back to Cardiff later this year - get in touch with charlotte@connectr.com to find out more.