Get In Westminster: Breaking Barriers for BAME in Parliament
@GWestminster
Imagine, whilst navigating your way through possible career routes in the political sector, through countless of talks, insight days, you are unable to find any useful information to help you. Get In Westminster founder, Mems Ayinla, felt this. Mems was frustrated that people of colour were under-represented and unsupported, especially for those who wanted to a job within the political sector. She realised that many companies and charities needed to endorse diversity, as it came apparent that many of them did not do it effectively or did not offer sufficient support.
Her vision and disappointment of the current representation in many spheres in the political sector, birthed a project that later became the established programme ‘Get in Westminster’, which has developed to the creation of a team and growing membership. The programme reinforces the importance of diversity within the workplace, which is essentially as it reflects our current multicultural society.
What is Get In Westminster?
Get In Westminster is a non-partisan educational programme that aims to empower young students and professionals of colour about career opportunities across the civil service.
The main aims of this programme is to equip the young people with the skills that is needed for applying within the the civil service or a political sector. Get in Westminster also provides a platform for our members to network, this can range from meeting like-minded people to future employers.
The programme also provides a safe space for people of colour to mentor each other and support each other in their chosen career. The political sector has typically been populated with “old, white males” which limits young people, especially people of colour, to feel disengaged and consequently not having the same opportunity as their peers.
Get IN Westminster aims to tackle the issue of under-representation by educating young students/professionals about the many opportunities. On our social media page, you can lookout for job threads for young people that are interested in politics as well as internships that may be of interest to our followers.
Last week we held our first roundtable event at the House of Commons on the topic of racial disparity in the workplace. A huge thank you to everyone who attended and participated! 🙌🏾🎉 #GIW pic.twitter.com/gDSV1VMvgh
— GetInWestminster (@GWestminster) May 8, 2018
We held our first ever event in January 2018 and have demonstrated a string of successful events that have followed: we recently had a roundtable discussion that discussed important BAME issues within the workplace such as race pay gap and dealing with racial harrassessment and difference in the workplace. This session was lead by Jennifer Crook, the Head of Diversity and Inclusion at the House of Commons, social influencer Nissy Tee also attended the event.
