Gloucester investors launch uni student jobs platform to combat Covid-19

Published by

Nicky Godding

Gloucester-based investment company Blackfinch Group has taken the initiative to launch a jobs platform for university students and researchers unable to work.

#ISOLATIONINTERN platform has been launched in partnership with investment industry firms and universities to enable specialist talent acquisition under Covid 19 Restrictions. The initiative aims to supercharge early stage companies and help keep this vital sector of the economy on track.

Startups are facing difficult times due to COVID-19 while many university students and researchers are at home, unable to work because their offices and labs are closed. The #ISOLATIONINTERN platform connects these bright minds to startups through flexible internships so that expertise like data science, marketing, and development can be engaged on a part-time basis.

The scheme is backed by a number of prominent investment industry partners such as Nexus Investments, Breed Reply, Shakespeare Martineau, Clarendon Fund Managers, Mercia Asset Management and the Development Bank of Wales. A number of leading universities will help by promoting the scheme to their students and researchers, including Lincoln, Bath, Southampton and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford. The #ISOLATIONINTERN platform is already hosting a number of intern jobs and is open to the investment industry and universities to sign up as partners. All listing fees will be donated to charities like The Access Project that help talented young people from disadvantaged backgrounds gain access to UK’s top universities.

The need for the #ISOLATIONINTERN initiative was identified through conversations between Blackfinch Group and the technology-enabled companies they invest in. As part of Blackfinch’s investment research process, it became clear that talent acquisition was already a problem for many startups, even before it was exacerbated by Covid 19 movement restrictions.

Richard Cook, Blackfinch CEO, said: “Talent is the life-blood of startups; without the brightest minds, they cannot develop and adapt at the pace the market demands. Venture Capital, startups and academia are all part of a close-knit ecosystem, which has been put under pressure in the current Covid 19 crisis. It became clear to us at Blackfinch that we were in a position to act proactively to help secure that network and supercharge startup recruitment – and so #ISOLATIONINTERN was born.”

Dr. Oliver Sampson, Industry Liaison Administrator at the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, said: “We are very happy to support the #ISOLATIONINTERN initiative during these difficult times. It will allow our talented students access to exciting opportunities with innovative start-ups that they are able to undertake remotely. The commercial and entrepreneurial experience they gain will be a significant addition to their education.”

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.