• ITN, Capgemini, MediaCom, ZenithMedia and Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen are amongst eight businesses agreeing to place all their work experience and internship opportunities on GoThinkBig.co.uk
• Initiative aims to bridge skills gap for 460,000 young people who haven’t been able to secure relevant work experience
• Move will create hundreds of work experience opportunities available to all and will join the almost 2,000 opportunities already on offer as a “gateway to employment” for young people

Reed Smith has become the first law firm to sign up to GoThinkBig, a new portal aimed at offering young people access to work experience and skills development opportunities from across a range of industries. It will showcase its opportunities to over 100,000 young people who use the GoThinkBig.co.uk website on which thousands of work experiences from a range of employers have been pooled into one place for the first time.

The firm is amongst eight leading UK and international companies that have signed up to GoThinkBig.co.uk, the youth work experience and internship portal launched by O2 and Bauer Media in October 2012.

The companies, which include ITN, Capgemini, Viacom, ZenithMedia, Fifteen, MediaCom and The Marketing Academy, have all agreed that they will place their future work experience and skills development opportunities on GoThinkBig.co.uk, making access open to anyone with an internet connection.

Carolyn Pepper, Partner at Reed Smith, said:

“Reed Smith will partner with GoThinkBig to help support and encourage young people in developing the skills that they need for the work place. All businesses need young talent, energy and creativity to grow. We want to help young people realise their potential, talents and goals.”

According to research by GoThinkBig, over 460,000 16-25 year olds say they have not been able to gain work experience relevant to the career path they want to follow. The biggest barrier to this is access to relevant opportunities – as over two thirds of businesses (69%) say they don’t formally publicise work experience opportunities.*

GoThinkBig.co.uk addresses this by making thousands of opportunities open to all young people, enabling them to access these opportunities through a single website – as well as providing information about how young people can best place themselves to succeed in securing them. The eight new partners will provide a variety of relevant opportunities include skills days, internships, apprenticeships, work placements, graduate entry schemes and full time employment posts.

Tokunbo Ajasa-Oluwa, Head of GoThinkBig said:

“GoThinkBig exists to help support young people into the world of work – delivering relevant opportunities to gain experience and a foot in the door. Employers tell us that they will always look at experience first and foremost – so bridging the existing skills gap for the almost half a million young people who have yet to gain relevant skills is vital if we’re to address youth unemployment. We are thrilled that Reed Smith is partnering Go Think Big and hope that other businesses will follow.”

The scheme was set up by O2 and Bauer Media in October 2012 with £5 million in funding and a commitment that the two businesses would make 30,000 experience and skills opportunities available to 14-25 year olds over its first three years.

In its first five months, GoThinkBig has already offered over 2,000 skills development and work experience opportunities from O2 and Bauer Media, the founding partners of the initiative. The eight new partners join Spotify, Channel 4 and Chime Communications which have also signed up to the scheme.

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* based on a nationally representative survey of 1,125 young people aged 16-25 and a nationally representative survey of 500 UK businesses by OnePoll carried out 15 October 2012

About O2

O2 is the commercial brand of Telefónica UK Limited and is a leading communications company with over 23 million customers – read more about O2 at www.o2.co.uk/news. O2 runs 2G and 3G networks and was the first to pilot 4G/LTE, reaching speeds of over 100Mpbs, as well as owning half of Tesco Mobile. It also operates O2 Wifi, O2 Health, O2 Unify, O2 Media and has recently launched the O2 Wallet. O2 employs over 11,000 people in the UK, has 450 retail stores and sponsors The O2, O2 Academy venues and the England rugby team.

Telefónica UK Limited is part of Telefónica Europe plc which uses O2 as its commercial brand in the UK, Ireland, Slovakia, Germany and the Czech Republic and is a business division of Telefónica SA.

About Bauer Media

A leading UK media group, with interests spanning magazines, radio, TV, online, live events and mobile. The company aims to connect audiences with excellent content whenever, wherever and however they want.

• Its award-winning portfolio of influential media brands includes Magic 105.4, heat, Metro Radio, Closer, Kiss, GRAZIA, EMPIRE, Q, Cool FM, KERRANG!, Radio Clyde, MCN, Key 103 and FHM: all delivering must-have entertainment and information to diverse and valuable audiences.
• Bauer Media publishes 53 leading magazine titles, over 40 of which were launched by the company.
• More than 13 million people a week listen to a Bauer Media radio station. Bauer Media is also home to the number one commercial digital station - The Hits Radio.
• Box TV, a JV between Bauer Media and Channel 4 runs seven music channels, including Smash Hits, Kerrang! Magic, heat, Kiss, The Box and the number one music TV channel - 4Music.
• Bauer Media's on-line businesses have more than 10 million users, visiting some 48 unique brand sites.