Fidelity Investments Ireland are longstanding supporters of the DCU Access Programme. In this piece, Lorna Martyn, Head of Technology with Fidelity Ireland explains how their support for Access scholarships resonates with their core values of diversity and inclusion.
Lorna has over 25 years of experience working in the financial services and telecommunications sectors. She has held technology leadership roles in both Ireland and the US since joining Fidelity in 2004 in a variety of domains including asset management, enterprise infrastructure and corporate technology as well as experience working in research and development. Engineering excellence and advocating for greater diversity in STEM are significant focus areas for Lorna.
Inclusion and diversity are core to Fidelity’s values – it is important that our workforce reflects the communities we work in and our US customer base. Through our global Fidelity Cares programme, we engage broadly to meet this objective and programmes such as the Access Programme help democratise access to education to support the inclusion imperative.
Fidelity has a longstanding focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in all our locations globally. Giving back is central to our culture, it is a key differentiator for employee experience and it also helps develop a future employee pipeline for our industry. As someone who works in technology, the opportunity to engage with primary and secondary schools is vital to influencing future careers in STEM. But, having influenced students to consider third level education, it is important for employers to support programmes like Access to help break down financial and social barriers to entry to third level education and careers.
Blaze your own trail is a rallying call for lifelong learning through education, experience and exposure to new concepts and technology. Many career opportunities that will be available in 5, 10, 20 years’ time do not exist yet. I would encourage our talented youth to be open-minded about possibilities, seek out role models and build upon their experience. Consider your college degree as a great foundation but be prepared to learn throughout your career, be prepared to say Yes and take risks to learn, but most importantly ensure you gain sufficient joy from what you do every day to sustain your career and desire for lifelong learning.
Image credit: SON Photographic
