2022 Shortlisted Nominee
Social Mobility Project Award
For four years Penguin Random House (PRH) have run 450 paid, randomly selected work experience opportunities and JobHacks: free day-long interactive workshops in social mobility coldspots across the UK. Both help young people experience the variety of roles within publishing and pivoted to virtual in 2021. PRH’s entry-level programme, The Scheme, is open to people from lower socio-economic backgrounds and doubled in size in 2021. PRH have committed to create 500 mentoring partnerships with Creative Access for under-represented talent in publishing by 2025. For those outside London who might struggle to afford accommodation, PRH sponsors The Spare Room Project (connected 400+ individuals to career advice during Covid) and offers a subsidised flat through The Book Trade Charity. Since 2016, no University degrees are required for jobs and their award-winning WriteNow programme finds, nurtures, and publishes new writers from under-represented communities.
