Be SMART

An award-nominated, targeted initiative to create greater access for our Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnicity undergraduates to mentoring, paid internships, and professional development opportunities.

Be SMART showed me that you can build yourself up. You can, you can step up, you can actually advance.

What is Be SMART?

Created in 2019, Be SMART is a targeted initiative run by the Employability Service in collaboration with WP Student Engagement. Shortlisted for the National Undergraduate Employability (NUE) Awards, this fantastic initiative offers 121 mentoring with industry professionals, paid internships, and professional development opportunities and resources to students from BAME backgrounds.

Students on Be SMART get a range of quality support.

The Employability Team offers expert support and guidance through professionalism workshops.
Students are paired with an industry professional working in an area they are interested in themselves. We’ve had students paired with individuals working in film and television, journalism, sport, law, finance, the environment, and much more - and we work hard to ensure all students are matched with an individuals who are both approachable and inspiring.
Participants are paid to undertake microinternships in a business relevant to their career aspirations.

Such an amazing experience.

Why is it important?

Data consistently shows that BAME graduates experience greater inequalities in relation to having industry-specific work experience and securing graduate level roles and employment.

We at St Mary’s feel strongly about taking transformative action. And that’s why Be SMART aims to mitigate some of the structural, cultural, and socio-economic factors that influence these inequalities, and provide access to life changing career enhancing opportunities and networks, so our BAME graduates can secure and thrive in rewarding careers. 

Here are some of the partners we have worked with. Lift list and logos from employer-facing Be SMART webpage.

My mentoring played a massive part in getting me to think about what kind of things I wanted to do in the future.

How do I sign up?

We open up applications in the autumn term each year, but you can register your interest at any stage by contacting careers@stmarys.ac.uk.

Want to Be a Mentor?

If you are a student who has graduated and is now in employment - perhaps you were on Be SMART yourself - and would like to be a mentor or an internship provider, we’d love to hear from you! Get in touch at careers@stmarys.ac.uk.