Many of our customers want to deepen their commitment to the place where they’re based. So we help them connect to opportunities that increase their impact in the local community. Andrew Halsall of Finastra, customer at Paddington Central, reflects on the value that this creates for all involved.

Finastra is one of the largest fintech companies in the world. Paddington Central is an 11-acre mixed use campus in central London, jointly owned by British Land.

Andrew: When Finastra shared an opportunity to mentor students at nearby Westminster Academy, one of British Land’s local partners, it lit a fire in me. I had some previous mentoring experience and knew that this was something I’d love to do.

I’m lucky with my mentee. He is fabulous. Really engaged and motivated. We both get a lot out of the experience. This is mutual space. I see my mentee taking in what we talk about and applying lessons to himself, approaching things differently. And I’m really, really enjoying mentoring. It feels good to share what you’ve learnt over your career and see the benefit this gives somebody else.

Part of something bigger

Andrew: Finastra is strong on environmental, social and governance (ESG). They encourage employees to engage with projects – anything from local mentoring and tree planting to global hackathons. This is one of the reasons I want to be with an organisation of a certain size, because they have the scale to organise diverse opportunities.

British Land’s support is a big advantage. They give more mass, momentum and opportunity to customers who want to engage with the community, bringing together different businesses and local partners. This makes it easier for employers to offer multiple initiatives, widening the base of who gets involved and so making a bigger difference.

It’s also good to feel that local connection between Finastra and the community around Paddington Central. You can almost see Westminster Academy from our building. I was looking to do something above and beyond my day-to-day and that local element is hugely important for me.

Learning and growing

Andrew: There’s a great team of mentors at Finastra, who share ideas together. We all want to contribute and we’re all learning and growing and seeing positive changes in our mentees. Most of us have children and it’s interesting to get a window into the world of young people older than our own. All experience and access to different knowledge is good. I’m learning a lot.

Looking back to my younger self, I can see how much I would have benefited from mentoring. It gives young people a better chance of success. It means they’re more comfortable in certain situations, less nervous, better prepared. This positions them better, whatever they’re aiming for – whether it’s a job, educational decision or life experience.

My mentee links together his education, home life and goals much better than I did at his age. He loves tech (who under the age of 20 today doesn’t?!). He sees himself moving through coding and recently managed to secure a summer internship through the programme.

A better chance of success

Andrew: This mentoring programme – organised by British Land and Finastra with Career Ready – is the best one I have been a part of. My mentee came to the process mature and switched on. Partly because life had brought him to that point through challenges but also because, before we ever met, he’d already completed an interview and training sessions as part of the programme. As mentors, we also received good introductions. This meant we didn’t have to crawl before we could walk, instead we could walk and then run!

I’d recommend mentoring to anyone interested to try. It’s enjoyable, fun and makes a huge difference to the mentor and mentee.

Andrew Halsall is Customer Success Manager at Finastra.

A British Land perspective

Samantha Dodd, Community Manager, said: “Paddington Central’s partnership with Finastra, Westminster Academy and Career Ready is an excellent example of how we can all achieve more by working together, not just for local communities but for businesses too.  We look forward to even more British Land customers joining us in improving social mobility through this and other programmes.”

Find out more about British Land’s social sustainability.