10,000 Black Interns Programme – 2023
10,000 Black Interns programme seeks to offer 2,000 internships each year for five consecutive years. The programme’s purpose is to transform the horizons and prospects of young black people in the UK by offering paid work experience across a wide range of industries, as well as world-class training and development.
This June, the South West Talent Team welcomed Ashleigh Onabajo (pronouns: she/her). Ashleigh joined us as part of the 10,000 Black Interns Programme for 6 weeks.
My name is Ashleigh Onabajo and I’m a master’s student in Public Health and Health Promotion at Brunel University. I’m really passionate about health inequalities (particularly in mental health access and outcomes) and being an advocate for underrepresented groups, so trying to find a Healthcare Management internship through the 10,000 Black Interns Programme naturally seemed like a good idea for gaining insight into how the healthcare system in this country works. And I wasn’t wrong!
Going into this internship with the South West Talent Team and Leadership Academy, I had no idea what to expect, I didn’t even know NHS England had Leadership Academies! The first thing I learned was that the NHS is so much bigger than anything I could’ve imagined, there’s so much happening behind the scenes that was impossible for me to anticipate, and still now as my final week comes in, I still can’t fully process just how much is going on behind the scenes. In short, I’ve spent the past 6 weeks being inspired by a range of different people and the work that they do. Even before my internship began, my line manager tailored my timetable to my interests, allowing me to shadow EDI work, and health inequalities teams, and throughout my internship I was connected with people who work in a variety of different teams that I could learn from; it felt comforting to be coming into such a supportive team, especially when HR and organisational development was never something I’d thought about before this internship. During my time here, I learned about Scope for Growth career conversations, and got the opportunity to help with evaluation work on this project, as well as other projects the team have going. I also helped do some work with the South West Talent Hub which allowed me to tap into a creative side that I don’t often get to use!
Overall, I’m so thankful for everyone in the South West Talent Team and Leadership Academy for welcoming me and not only giving me the independence to work on various projects, but for helping me see how talent management connects to healthcare inequalities, and that this is a career path that I could take to create change. They also connected me with others who’s experiences I could learn from; I’ve built so many relationships in these 6 short weeks, and hope that I can stay connected in the long-term.
To any organisation considering joining the 10,000 Black Interns Programme, please do! Learning from within the organisation about how you all work has not only been inspiring, but also insightful, and I believe it will become an invaluable first step in my career journey.