Year Here Social Innovation Fellowship Program 2023

They have two intakes per year, kicking off their Fellowship in Spring and Autumn. The programme is full time for 10 months, with an optional 2-month incubator. Apply to join the next generation of social innovators.

Programme Details

Over 10 months, you’ll learn how to build entrepreneurial solutions to society’s toughest problems – from educational inequality to homelessness. If selected to become a Fellow, you will:

• Get frontline insights. You’ll spend the first 5 months working with the people hit hardest by austerity and gaining deep user insight. To deepen your systemic understanding, you’ll also work on briefs set by clients like Crisis, the NHS and the Greater London Authority.
• Meet your co-founders. Their Fellows have an average of 7 years’ career experience in fields ranging from biochemistry to law, and from journalism to engineering. They will become your support network, your collaborators and, ultimately, your co-founders.
• Build scalable ventures. You’ll test and build your own social business, with the potential to progress to their Incubator and launch it into the world. Venture teams are guided by expert partners like the Boston Consulting Group, ForwardPMX and BNY Mellon.
• Learn from expert faculty. You’ll get a personal mentor and receive tonnes of training from a faculty of more than 80 social innovation leaders – from award-winning social designer Lauren Currie OBE to Nishant Lalwani, Director of Investments at The Omidyar Network.

Find out more about the programme in their 2023 Prospectus.

Funding

• Unlike a Master’s degree or MBA, there is no tuition fee, the course is free.
  • While there may be no tuition fee, a year without a salary is undeniably tough. The good news is that there are lots of options to make your participation in the programme viable. Although the course is intensive, the majority of Fellows do freelance or part-time work in their evenings, weekends and holidays – as designers, tutors or journalists, for example.
• Some receive a bursary to pay their living expenses, and some benefit from cheap accommodation options.

They offer a small number of bursaries of up to £5,000 each year. These are funded by donations from their advisors, faculty members, and wider network. To be awarded a bursary, you will need to submit evidence of any means-tested financial assistance you have received in the past.

Eligibility

Fellows come from a range of backgrounds and industries. With an average of 7 years’ career experience, they bring an incredibly diverse set of professional skills and life experiences to the programme. What unites them is their brilliant personal qualities – like resourcefulness, humility and resilience – and their passion for social action.

To be eligible to apply to Year Here, you will need to satisfy the following minimum requirements:

• Eligibility to work and volunteer in the UK
• Willingness to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS, formerly CRB) check
• Ability to commit to the dates of the programme and live in London for the course duration.

Selection Criteria

• ENTREPRENEURIAL TRACK RECORD: You don’t have to have started a business, but you’ll need to demonstrate your natural bias towards action.
• PROFESSIONAL SKILL SET: You should have a solid grounding in fundamental professional skills built up over at least 2 years in work.
• LEARNING MINDSET: They’re looking for curiosity, open-mindedness and a sense of possibility about growth – personal, professional and societal.
• PASSION FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE: You should be thoughtful about society’s issues, critically-minded about what works and fired up about change.
• INSATIABLE HUNGER: You don’t let opportunities pass you by. You are seriously driven, and you’re hungry for growth, for learning, for impact.

How to Apply

The first step takes 5 minutes.

• Sign up to check your eligibility. If you’re eligible, you’ll be sent an online application form.
• Applicants who meet their eligibility criteria are invited to make an online application, complete a video interview and come along to a selection workshop.
• If you are applying for financial support from us, you will be asked to make an application when you receive your selection workshop invite. You’ll need to outline your financial situation and upload evidence of previous means-tested support you’ve received. When you receive your offer, you’ll also be told the result of your financial support application.

Click here to register your interest.

For more information, visit Year Here.