Working to change the world

This was the encouragement to Cambridge students from Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP, Secretary of State for International Development.

240 heard him give the keynote address at the Careers Service’s annual not-for-profit event, Work to Change the World, yesterday.

Believing that this generation has a unique opportunity to solve some of the most challenging issues facing the Global South,  Andrew Mitchell has initiated a new graduate development programme.

The scheme offers 30 paid places for the brightest and the best to work at the Department for International Development (DFID) for 50 weeks from September 2012.

"The constant buzz at the DFID stall over the course of the day showed how significant this new programme is," said Gordon Chesterman, Director of the University Careers Service.

"International development is a popular but notoriously difficult-to-enter sector where lengthy unpaid work experience is often a pre-requisite.  The Careers Service is delighted that the Secretary of State chose to launch the scheme at Cambridge."

Work to Change the World, attended yesterday by some 70 not-for-profit organisations and more than 500 students, is just one element of the Careers Service’s commitment to present opportunities in all sectors, not just the high-earning City sectors.

Other initiatives to support these hard-to-enter areas of work include:

- Careers Advisers with substantial charity and public sector experience;

- A bursary scheme offering £500 to 60 students undertaking crucial but unpaid work experience in the not-for-profit, media or arts and heritage fields; and

- Regular careers panels by alumni currently working in these areas.

Andrew Mitchell read History at Jesus College and was President of the Cambridge Union.  His career has spanned investment banking, UN peacekeeping and periods in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Government Whips Office and the Department of Social Security.

He served as Shadow Secretary for International Development for five years before being appointed as Secretary of State in 2010.

His speech was recorded and will be available on the Careers Service website shortly. www.careers.cam.ac.uk