EMERGING PROFESSIONALS PROGRAMME
Set Your Early-Career Talent Up For Long-Term Success
Retain and develop ethnically diverse talent by equipping them with the clarity and confidence to succeed with authenticity.
Career Pathways Take Shape Early
The early years are when talent starts learning how progression really works: how to navigate an organisation, build the right relationships and make informed career choices. Making this knowledge more accessible early can help organisations create stronger pathways for ethnically diverse talent from the outset.
Who This Programme Is For
Our programme serves as a supportive foundation, designed for early-career professionals who aim to prepare themselves for long term career success:
- Early-career professionals: professionals with a maximum of 3 years of corporate work experience who aspire to navigate organisations with clarity.
- Difference as a strength: our programmes centre the experiences of ethnically diverse professionals navigating the start of their careers, and are open to anyone drawn to this focus.
What Participants Gain
Understand and navigate organisations
Build meaningful relationships
Take ownership of your career
Inside the Programme
Our Emerging Professionals programme runs over five months, with five individual career coaching sessions and five group sessions. The programme combines personal guidance, practical learning and peer exchange to help participants translate insight into their day-to-day careers.
1:1 Career Coaching
Receive tailored guidance from an senior professional that shares an ethnically diverse background. These conversations help you explore the career questions you face now and anticipate the choices and opportunities that may come next.
workshop
The Power of Authenticity
unfiltered convo
Standing Out at Work
workshop
Crafting Your Career
unfiltered convo
Finding Your Career Compass
Our Impact
Roots Inspire is an experienced programme provider with over 300 programme alumni across various stages of their careers. The impact of our programmes is measured through structured self-reflection at the start and end of each cohort.
Here is how the curriculum shapes the trajectories of our alumni:
72%
Made a career step within 18 months
Translating personal clarity into visible progress
88%
Have clarity on their next career step
In comparison to 27%
before
83%
Have actionable guidance on visibility
In comparison to 16%
before
95%
Feel inspired to
maximise their potential
In comparison to 45%
before
Diya Dilan
Associate
A&O Shearman
“What I value most is the vulnerable and energizing conversations I have had with my mentor, but also with the organisation and all the guest speakers. The insights I have gained from people who I otherwise would have never met are invaluable and are what I appreciate most about the programme.”
Amhar Ford
Senior Technical Solutions Consultant – Ads
Google
“There’s nothing more empowering than being surrounded by a cohort of diverse high performers who all want to maximize their career potential and impact. It’s very inspiring.”
Eneida Driza
Solution Designer | IT Engineer IV
ABN AMRO
“What I value most in the leadership programme is the opportunity to learn from diverse perspectives, different experiences from mentors, while developing my own skills on how to lead with impact and find my style. I like the pace of the programme that after all the insights we gathered, we also had the time to digest all of them and also put them into practice. I’m impressed how all this experience helped me in shifting my mindset for good towards the leadership journey.”
Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan
R&D Manager – Dressings – Europe | UK&I
Unilever
“Roots Inspire programme helped me connect with others who have a similar back story as me to be able have nuanced and authentic career conversations. The talks, workshops and mentoring helped expand my knowledge and has resulted in brining more clarity on what I want to do next.”
Gosia Gower
Lead Consultant
Argon & Co
“The Roots Inspire programme provided a unique opportunity to connect with inspiring mentors, gain valuable insights into leadership, and reflect on my own career journey. What I appreciated most was the safe and supportive space the programme created for honest conversations about growth, purpose, and making a meaningful impact.”
Cihan Eren
Senior Associate
De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek
“What I value most about the Roots Inspire programme is the honest, experience-based guidance from senior professionals who truly understand the challenges of building a career as a diverse talent. It has helped me navigate my own career choices with more clarity and confidence.”
Alicia Sawyer
Legal Counsel
C&A
“As a young professional, I truly appreciated feeling welcomed and supported in the program. It provided me with valuable tips for my professional development and I believe it is perfect for career starters.”
Kevin Kabera
Senior Finance Transformation Consultant
Deloitte
“The workshop and the inspiring people who attended the workshops in the panel were very interesting and valuable because of the different perspectives you get from different sectors and how to excel in [them].”
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Interested in Emerging Professionals for Yourself?
If you would like to explore participating, we can discuss with your organisation how Emerging Professionals could support you and other early-career talent.
To start the conversation, share this page with your line manager or a relevant HR or Talent contact, who can get in touch with us using the form below.
Develop Your Early-Career Talent
Looking to strengthen career progression and retention for your early-career talent? Let’s discuss how the Emerging Professionals Programme can support your organisation.