CASE STUDY

Small steps to a more diverse workforce of the future through inclusive internships

At The Crown Estate we’re committed to embracing difference and creating an inclusive environment where people feel comfortable bringing their whole selves to work. We know these can’t be hollow words, and to achieve this requires a proactive focus on creating the right culture whereby we attract and nurture diverse talent.

As part of our broader ambition to drive progress and embrace diversity, our priority now is to prompt systemic change to help create an even more diverse workforce of the future, both inside our organisation and through influencing others.

For six years now we’ve run three paid internship programmes encouraging new talent into marine industries with practical real-world tasks and exposure to a range of experts from The Crown Estate and our partners. The schemes are open to all, though have so far been successful in supporting more women into the industry with an 88% female cohort.

We’re now taking a focused approach to attracting people from diverse backgrounds by looking more closely at where and how we recruit, particularly looking at representation from different socioeconomic backgrounds as well as wanting to reflect the diversity of the areas we’re operating in.

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Back to Attraction

Small simple steps can help to attract people from less traditional backgrounds into the industry. For example, we’ve removed specific requirements such as the need to have a car, a degree and volunteering experience from the application as these can be barriers for potentially talented people. We’re also working with the national Skills Builder organisation to alter the language in the application to reference specific skills which aims to help more candidates identify with the job role.

Our Coastal Explorers internship in Kent is in partnership with Vattenfall, Canterbury City Council and Kent Wildlife Trust, and Marine Futures in Cumbria is a collaboration with Ørsted, Natural England and the North West Wildlife Trusts. 100% of the interns have gone on to secure onwards employment in the industry/with partners from the programme.