Clemenger, Pulse, Glue Society and Special Group sign up for Rare intern program which seeks to pay ‘full living wage’
A number of agencies have signed up to an intern program run by Rare, Google’s global diversity and inclusion platform for creative industries, which seeks to place talent for three months.
The program promises to pay a full living wage, above the required minimum wage, of $10,000 for a 12-week contract.
Rare is seeking to a foot in the door to people who may not know anyone in the creative industries
Clemenger, Pulse, Glue Society, Special Group and Us Two have all signed up as founding partners for the program which seeks to give underprivileged and underrepresented talent a foot in the door. R/GA was originally signed on for the program but has since had to pull out.
The program will offer talent looking to start or reignite their careers in the creative, media and tech industries, a chance to take a placement in a range of roles and departments.
Talent who would like to apply for the program just need to answer two questions – ‘What makes you Rare?’ and ‘How might this internship get you where you want to be?’
Us Two operations and people director Teresa Lily said the program will help promote better representation across the creative and media industries.
“We need a better representation of different people, backgrounds, and perspectives entering the industry and we need to make sure they have excellent (and financially sustainable) experiences that encourage them to continue on that path,” said Lily.
“At Us Two, we’re all about nurturing budding talent and are excited to be partnering with Rare to bring this to life.”
Rare co-founder Stefanie DiGianvincenzo said the company hopes the initiative will set a new standard across the industry.
“Historically, junior talent has been expected to work unpaid internships in order to get enough experience and exposure to land their first job. Which is a massive barrier to anyone who can’t afford to work for free.”
The program has a plan to expand globally in 2020 and will use the base requirement of a full living wage to ensure that talent is able to afford working with top creative agencies who usually reside in big cities.
Jonathon Kneebone, founding partner at Glue Society, said: “This is action creating change, as opposed to just talk. At Glue Society, we love to do what we can to develop individuals’ creative personality and craft skills – it is about enabling people to achieve what they are capable of.
“The reason for supporting individuals who may not otherwise get a chance is, when you give people with fresh voices the same opportunities as those people we’re used to seeing and hearing from, the whole business broadens and becomes fresher and more vital.”
Stephen De Wolf, CCO at Clemenger BBDO said: “At Clemenger, we believe that without different perspectives and experiences, we limit our ability to push creativity forward. The team at Rare are driving this important change. This is something we need to get behind if we truly believe creativity is our future.”
topics
Clemenger BBDO
Glue Society
intern
Jonathon Kneebone
Pulse
RARE
Special Group
Stefanie DiGianvincenzo
Stephen de Wolf
Teresa Lily
Us Two
Fantastic initiative. Beat me to it! I love that this is solid action to make change. Good stuff.
Glad to see things like this finally getting the support they deserve! Young Creative Council along with support of some 50+ agencies has been running a similar thing for the last few years in the UK.
https://youngcreativecouncil.com/placement-poverty-pledge/
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