Invesco Real Estate has launched a student mentoring programme in Europe, aimed at creating a more diverse talent pool across its own business and the industry at large.
Working with Project Destined, a social impact education and investment platform that specialises in training underserved youth, Invesco said the nine-week programme marks the first time it is running the project in Europe following earlier such initiatives in the US.
Under the Project Destined programme, around 13 students work 40 hours over nine weeks on a ‘live’ transaction with a sponsor firm, supervised by identified mentors within a corporate setting.
Students learn skills such as valuation excel modelling techniques, and how to analyse the quantitative and qualitative aspects of a deal opportunity. They get access to real estate training, mentor office hours, and an executive speakers series where senior executives in the industry provide advice on career development.
The programme culminates in a presentation of the ‘live’ transaction whereby the students compete against peers being mentored at other firms in a ‘shark tank/dragon’s den’ style commercial real estate competition.
In Europe, Invesco has assembled 13 mentors from across all disciplines of the business from its Paris, Munich and London offices. They range from managing director to senior associate level and are active across transactions, fund management, structured finance, residential investments, fund analysis, asset management and investment operations. The programme has already begun for summer 2022 and will continue over the European summer.
The European programme follows two successful projects with Project Destined in the US, first in Dallas in autumn 2021 and subsequently in New York in spring 2022.
Andy Rofe, managing director and head of Europe at Invesco Real Estate said: ‘At Invesco, diversity and inclusion is a topic we don’t just want to talk about; we want to be at the forefront of making a difference in our industry. Working with Project Destined, we’re seeking to create a more diversified talent pool across both the real estate sector, and within our own global business.’
He added: ‘Diverse talent is important to our future business growth and working with Project Destined not only allows us the opportunity to help their students to benefit from live “on the job” training, learning key, practical skills to enable them to step into roles and make a difference from day one, but it also provides us with an opportunity to seek incredible, new talent for our growing business. It correlates with our overall global diversity goal to continuously make us better.’
To date Project Destined has worked with over 600 students across 125 universities and is backed by some of the world’s leading global real estate firms.
‘We are excited to partner with Invesco to prepare this incredible group of students for a career in commercial real estate,’ said Project Destined founder Cedric Bobo. ‘The real estate industry provides unparalleled opportunities to build a great career while also impacting your community and your city. This internship program will enable us to expand this opportunity to students across Europe and ensure they are ready to take on that challenge.’
