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WHO WE ARE
Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, Ltd. (SEO London) is a UK-registered charity delivering superior educational, training, and mentoring support to young people from low socioeconomic and ethnic minority backgrounds.
Our programmes foster pre-professional development, facilitate career access, and ensure
long-term success in various competitive global industries. Since our establishment in 2000,
SEO London has played a pivotal role in advancing workplace diversity and inclusion.
Numerous alumni, who have benefited from our transformative initiatives, now occupy key
positions in leading UK and global corporations and firms. Our collaborations span across
industries such as investment banking, asset management, consulting, commercial real
estate, technology, alternative investments, insurance, and corporate law. Through
partnerships with our sponsor firms, we empower our participants by providing industry
insights, employability support, and exclusive access to job and internship opportunities in
their chosen sectors.
OUR HISTORY
1963
Our story began in New York in 1963, when Michael Osheowitz founded Sponsors for Educational Opportunity Inc as a mentoring programme to help students from New York city secondary schools gain admission to competitive colleges and universities. The motto was then and still remaining that ambition and intelligence – not post codes or skin colour – should determine who succeeds in society.
That year, 60 years ago, the first summer internship career programme for underrepresented college students began on Wall Street. In a pioneering diversity initiative, eleven students got internships at five investment banks. By 1980 SEO New York had broadened its approach to involve internship and alumni programming and expanded across the United States.
2000
In 2000, one of those SEO New York Career alumni, Andrew Fairbairn, who had studied at Stanford University, moved to London with a leading investment bank and witnessed the same situation, the same needs and, crucially, the opportunity to increase workplace diversity using the SEO New York model.
Our Career programme started, and we began our work with university students helping them to gain the necessary skills to excel at a job interview, land an internship, or get a full-time job. That very summer the first seven university students from the newly launched Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, Ltd (SEO London) started their internships at five major investment banks in the City of London.
2012
In 2012, SEO London launched its Schools programme to inspire and serve high-achieving year 11-13 pupils, give them the chance to explore their options and make informed choices about their future.
2013
In 2013, SEO Alumni – then called SEO Connect– was launched, supporting SEO alumni once they enter the professional life.
SEO TODAY
DIVERSITY
Over 20,000 diverse students are registered with one or more of SEO London’s programmes: Investment Banking and Asset Management, Alternative Investments, HerCapital, Corporate Law, City Solicitors Horizons, Commercial Real Estate, Consulting, Corporates and Technology and Insurance.
Students benefit from sponsorship and engagement opportunities with over 140 world-class firms in these industries. Our programmes provide comprehensive training, tutoring, coaching, mentoring, and direct access to professionals in the industry through an intense calendar of events, workshops, webinars, assessment support and work experience to prepare them for the world of work.
ALUMNI
Thousands of SEO London alumni work in global organisations; many of them holding senior leadership positions.
Our SEO London Alumni platforms connect them and support their professional growth through seminars, life-long learning and networking, jobs boards and professional and volunteer opportunities.
OPPORTUNITY
Since its launch, SEO London has faithfully delivered its mission to provide individuals from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds with access and opportunity to fulfil their professional potential and, consequently, create a more equal society.
Although we know that there is work to do, SEO London proudly celebrates these two decades of transformative leadership for more diverse and inclusive workplaces.
We will continue working tirelessly with talented young people with the potential to thrive in top industries, connecting them with the firms that are looking for them.