We are proud to support the Pathways to Birmingham and Sanctuary Scholarships programmes at the University of Birmingham. These programmes are designed to support talented young people who face financial or social barriers to accessing higher education. In March 2026, we brought this commitment to life through an immersive innovation day at our London office, designed to give students a hands on experience of what entrepreneurial thinking looks like inside a global business. We welcomed a group of scholarship recipients to our offices for an immersive development experience.
Students spent the day in a hands on hackathon with members of our senior leadership team, including University of Birmingham alumni, working together to tackle real business challenges. Working in teams, students explored how innovation and emerging technologies, including AI, can be used to solve challenges and strengthen decision-making. The day concluded with small-group networking sessions, giving students the opportunity to connect with colleagues whose expertise aligned with their academic and career interests. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with many participants describing the experience as inspiring, confidence building and influential in shaping their future ambitions.
“Opportunities like this do not happen by accident. They happen because people choose to invest in students and create experiences that broaden our horizons and help us imagine possibilities we may never have considered before. Before visiting, I knew very little about Collinson. By the end of the day, I was genuinely inspired.... ...throughout the day, we heard career journeys that were fascinating, unexpected, and incredibly reassuring. I met people who had studied one thing and worked in another, people who had travelled the world before discovering their passion, people who had completely changed direction.... there was a genuine sense that they wanted to invest in the next generation of students.” – Nohaa, Pathways to Birmingham student
