M&G hosted a “Women in Fund Management Day” targeting first year female undergraduates. Over 80 students with varied backgrounds were invited to attend the Insights Day, designed to educate and inspire talented young women to consider the range of exciting career opportunities available in investment management.

Lauren Salter, the Apprenticeships Manager and Senior Graduate Consultant at M&G explained “We only accept applications for our summer internships from penultimate year students, so the objective here is to provide undergraduates with enough information to support the internship application process”.

Investing and portfolio management skills

The insights day included a wide range of activities to demystify Fund Management and encourage participation from female students. The event kicked off with an investment simulation exercise to sharpen investing and portfolio management skills, followed by an inspiring talk from Alison Browning, an Investment Writer in Fixed Income at M&G. Other speakers included, Rajmeet Bhatti, an Executive Business Manager in Finance at M&G who discussed her role and shared her experiences as a woman working in the finance sector.

Speed networking

After a lively speed networking session, M&G delivered an incredibly useful employability session advising undergraduates on CV & interview techniques. The audience was then able to hear about graduate opportunities first hand, from former and current M&G graduates employees via a panel discussion.

The open and inclusive environment, coupled with the participatory nature of the Insights day was a huge success and was extremely well received by the audience. 

Thanks to the M&G team

“I sincerely enjoyed taking part in the trading simulation and listening to the business speakers talk about their experiences. Thank you to all the M&G team,” one audience member said.

“I think it's incredibly important for both M&G and undergraduates to interact with each other. It's important for undergraduates to understand where their degree can take them, explore a new organisation and network with others interested in the financial industry,” explained another.

Those attending were notably impressed with M&G and its commitment to diversity. ”I think that a female focused finance event shows that M&G has taken this industry problem on board and is actively trying to help change it and encourage more women into the fund management industry,” one undergraduate observed.

Women in fund management

M&G is actively encouraging women into the fund management sector, and is keen to attract talent from a diverse range of backgrounds to apply for its brilliant internship programmes. Learn more about M&G's 2017 internship and graduate opportunities opening in August 2016.

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