Boldspace launches diversity and inclusion initiative to reimagine work experience for under-represented communities

Fast-growing brand building, communications and analytics agency Boldspace has announced a new initiative with IntoUniversity that looks to address the often archaic, nepotistic and unproductive structure of traditional ‘work-experience’.

The ‘Boldspace Syllabus’ initially breaks down Communications & PR, Brand Strategy, Creative Advertising, and Analytics into 26 bitesize 5-10 minute video modules led by senior team members.

The content gives students the ability to immerse themselves in the full spectrum of modern disciplines and explore where their interests may lie before attending a live Q&A with Mike Robb (Co-founder & Managing Director), Nick Ford-Young (Co-founder), Matt Weston (Creative Director), Lou Kelly (Associate Director) and Therese Moriarty (Head of Data & Analytics). Both the content and Q&A will be open to sixth form and university students.

Based on the Boldspace founders’ theory that work experience is rarely more than a superficial CV boosting exercise, IntoUniversity alumni students who are currently at university can then apply for a week-long course at Boldspace’s offices from 12th July where they will attend talks in the morning before working in teams of their peers and the full range of Boldspace employees on real briefs from real Boldspace clients.

Boldspace will provide ongoing mentorship to those that attend the course and, in time, provide a number of grad scheme placements.

Nick Ford-Young, Co-founder at Boldspace, said: “The system has been broken for as long as I have known it. Work experience often means very little – it is an inconvenience for managers, impossible to secure independently for young people and virtually useless to both parties. Real experience needs real understanding and real work. By giving young people a whistle-stop educational tour of all vital aspects of our industry – from brand building to analytics – we are not patronising them, but giving them the chance to experience integrated communications early enough to hopefully help persuade them to one day consider it as their career. 2020 shone a light on what we need to fix: in 2021 we intend to do our bit to contribute to fixing it.”

Tom Hainge, Centre Leader at IntoUniversity, said: “The immersive focus that Boldspace has prioritised for this series of modules shows a real commitment to providing a truly valuable base for our students to begin looking towards a career in the advertising, marketing and PR industries. Having three hours of bitesize lectures puts the agency back in the hands of our students and gives them the tools to develop their understanding on their own terms. We hope that this set of insight lectures will provide our students with the knowledge they need to feel empowered to actively consider a career in these fields.”

Boldspace has recently been shortlisted by Campaign Magazine as Start-up of the Year at the Campaign Tech Awards. The awards, now in their fifth year, celebrate companies that represent the industry’s trailblazing thinkers, imaginative clients and cutting-edge technology. The nomination comes just six-months after the launch of the agency’s proprietary data and analytics platform, BoldLens, which enables clients to monitor, track, predict, and react to developing trends around their business, across all communications channels, in real-time.