T. Rowe Price is an asset management firm helping clients around the world achieve their long-term investment goals. With headquarters in Baltimore and operating in 16 countries, they employ over 6,700 people. With a well-established CSR programme and charitable foundation in the US, the firm was keen to explore how it could replicate some of this success in the UK and expand a responsible business strategy that encompasses overarching themes of assisting the elderly, financial education, youth development, and employment.
Overview
THE JOURNEY SO FAR
T. Rowe Price joined the Heart of the City network in 2015, with a vision to identify strategic charity partnerships that could lead to long-term mentoring and volunteering opportunities for the London office of nearly 350 employees. The firm was also keen to identify a best-practice approach to measurement and evaluate their community goals to help benchmark progress against others in similar industries. Now three years into its responsible business journey, T. Rowe Price has made remarkable progress in developing an apprenticeship programme, community partnerships programme, measurement and evaluation.
APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMME
To help attract and foster new talent into the industry, T. Rowe Price implemented an apprenticeship programme in London. In 2014 they piloted an apprenticeship programme in Business Administration and although they successfully recruited two apprentices, they struggled with training providers which made for a challenging pilot year. They went on to recruit an additional two apprentices in 2016, but similarly found it difficult to gain leverage with training providers because of the size of their scheme.
Heart of the City introduced T. Rowe Price to the City of London Corporation’s “Apprenticeships in the City” programme, targeted at small-to-medium-sized banking and asset management firms who are looking to understand the apprenticeship levy and bring new talent to their businesses. T. Rowe Price was accepted onto the 2017 cohort of this programme and is currently working alongside 12 other firms within the square mile to co-commission apprenticeship training with local providers.
Through this scheme, T. Rowe Price is currently looking at offering apprenticeships in Investment Operations and Digital Marketing. Looking to the future T. Rowe Price is keen to grow the apprenticeship scheme to increase value for practitioners, the firm and wider community by providing meaningful work experience, a feasible career path and strong employability skills for successful candidates.
View the Heart of the City Impact Report 2017 to learn more about the T.Rowe Price Community Partnerships Programme, and their improvements in measurement and evaluation.
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