THE BUSINESS
Novuna (previously Hitachi Capital) is one of the UK’s leading financial services companies, providing innovative financial solutions and outstanding customer experiences to consumers, SMEs and corporate multinationals for more than 35 years. They have 1,400 staff and 1.4 million customers across the UK and Europe.
THE CHALLENGE
Building early careers from the ground up.
Novuna are committed to encouraging greater inclusion and diversity in their business. They were also seeking new strategies to enhance learning and development, especially with their early careers scheme.
With a substantial Apprenticeship Levy they wanted to maximise, they came to us for an end-to-end solution that would expand their apprenticeship programme group-wide to attract talent from diverse backgrounds that they weren't currently reaching and advance social mobility in their local communities.
OUR APPROACH
Creating pathways in financial services for socially diverse young people.
We created ‘Gamechangers’, an end-to-end solution that would enable Novuna to inspire, engage and hire disadvantaged Year 13 students in their local communities through a uniquely supportive recruitment process.
We began by delivering interactive workshops in 52 schools across Novuna’s five UK communities over a nine-week period, making students aware of Novuna’s apprenticeship pathways and attracting applications.
Next, we selected applicants for assessment days in each Novuna office. The students who showed the greatest potential were invited to a seven-month mentoring programme to help them define their career goals and work towards their objectives, while enabling Novuna to build relationships with their pipeline.
We helped recruit and also trained the 50+ mentors so they could offer effective support with confidence, then arranged a launch session to introduce mentors with mentees and set objectives for the relationship. When COVID-19 required a shift to virtual mentoring, we supported the transition with a six-session virtual masterclass programme.
Finally, we coordinated the interview process, ultimately working with Novuna to offer 11 apprenticeships in a variety of roles across five locations – all paid at National Living Wage and carrying recognised qualifications. We then created a virtual onboarding programme, including weekly coaching calls, fortnightly skills masterclasses and check-ins
with line managers, plus tools and frameworks to help the business with apprentice development.
THE RESULTS
- Delivered workshops in 52 schools across 5 UK communities
- Engaged 1,100 young people, with over 270 applying to Gamechangers
- Selected 130 applicants for assessment days, achieving a 92% attendance rate
- 55 students took part in monthly one-to-one mentoring with Novuna colleagues
- 11 apprentices hired across 5 locations – all apprentices have since completed qualifications and transitioned into permanent positions, with several winning company awards
- Programme awarded Best School Leaver/Apprentice Development Programme at the 2022 Institute of Student EmployersAwards; Bronze Award for Best Execution of a Partnership at the 2021 Corporate Engagement Awards; and Silver Award for Best Apprenticeship Programme at the 2022 Learning Awards
WHAT THE EMPLOYER SAYS
“It was clear from the very beginning that Visionpath had the expertise and experience to design and deliver a programme that would enable [Novuna] to play its part in advancing social mobility by helping us create accessible opportunities for young people from diverse socio-economic backgrounds.
But what really cemented our decision to partner with them is their passion for making a meaningful impact on young people’s lives – a passion which is evident across everyone at Visionpath and is genuinely infectious.
Gamechangers also gives our colleagues a chance to develop tangible skills such as mentoring, coaching and assessing. More importantly, by helping young talent to make decisions for their future, they obtain a sense of fulfilment which results in higher engagement and happiness.”
– Yoko Hitosugi-Bessey – General Manager CEO Office & CSR, Novuna
Want to know how we can create and manage a bespoke apprenticeship programme for your business? Get in touch.
