Blackfinch Group has launched an online internship platform in partnership with investment industry firms and universities to help startups to enlist the UK’s brightest students and researchers to work from home.
Startups are facing difficult times recruiting fresh talent due to Covid-19 whilst 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.
Richard Cook, Blackfinch CEO, says: “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.”