Case Study: Occupational Segregation - Goldman Sachs

Since 2000 Goldman Sachs has been working with girls in years 12 and 13 to encourage them to consider careers in investment banking. The company offers a two-day programme to challenge pre-conceptions and to give young women a flavour of the breadth and depth of opportunities available. In addition, the programme provides a number of soft skills sessions, eg, CV writing, to aid their transition from school to university. The goal is to encourage students to go on to university and to maintain a dialogue with programme alumni once there.

The programme is sponsored by the Goldman Sachs Women’s Network. Three senior co-sponsors work with 36 strong performing female associates from across the firm to partner with 30 schools (50:50 state and private) in 2006. Co-CEO Goldman Sachs International, Michael Sherwood, had the original idea for the programme and makes a point of meeting with the girls in the programme and answering their questions.

To build on the progress of the partnership, Goldman Sachs hosted a pilot teacher conference in July 2006 in partnership with the London Central Educational Business Alliance, to raise awareness of the investment banking industry amongst school teachers in inner city London and those working at the partnership schools. Over the course of a morning, Goldman Sachs provided the teachers with additional career guidance resources to support them and their students and pointed to useful next steps for those considering going on to higher education. An independent teacher conference was also held in Stirling in September.

Before the programme 77% of pupils would have considered applying for a role at Goldman Sachs, rising to 93% after the event.

The Teacher Conference in London attracted 56 attendees from a range of schools and representatives from 6 non-profit partner organisations. All of them stated that their knowledge of the industry and career opportunities had improved as a result of the Conference. The 2007 Conference, scheduled for July, has been developed to incorporate a new panel discussion with organisations providing specialist careers guidance and additional sessions for the teachers to share best practice

A number of School Programme Alumni have completed internships and there are currently seven alumni working fulltime at the firm.

Many of the 2006 partners from within the company have been promoted, but they are still committed to building their relationships and activity at schools as the programme continues.