The Adab Trust

The Adab Trust was set up in 2007 to facilitate improved employment outcomes for students from challenging backgrounds. Since inception, the Trust has worked with six universities and supported over 7,000 undergraduates and recent graduates. Our inaugural programme was the 'Leadership by Example Programme'. This involved high calibre graduates from ethnic minority backgrounds - particularly from modern universities – being put through a six stage employer-led training and selection programme. The selection programme was delivered by one of UK's leading executive search agencies - Odgers & Berndtson – alongside the market leader in psychometric testing - SHL group. Successful candidates were then marketed to employers and in our first year of operation, 45 candidates secured graduate level roles. From delivering our inaugural programme, we discovered that the principal barrier to most graduates being able to secure their desired jobs; was that they often lacked the soft skills employers sought. To address this, we developed our current programme - the very successful 'Employers in Higher Education (EHE) Programme'. The Employers in Higher Education (EHE) Programme: This programme aims to create a strong connection between education and employers. This is done by bringing employers onto campuses to deliver a range of creative and innovative training sessions to young people. There are five strands of the EHE programme: Masterclass Series Problem based Learning Guest Speaker Series Employability Workshops Mentoring Please see here for more information about the various strands. Also, please see here for more case studies highlighting feedback from beneficiaries of Adab's initiatives.