This June Year 12 Economics students travelled to the City of London to the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, to hear from employees of the Bank of England about the history of the institution, their main responsibilities and how some of their key tools such as Quantitative Easing and Quantitative Tightening work.  The presentation reinforced topics that the students are learning in their A Level Economics study and it brought these topics to life.

One of the presenters was a degree apprentice at the Bank and the other was on a sandwich year from his undergraduate degree at Birmingham University.  They gave the Wren students great insight into these programmes, their early career decisions and the practicalities of working life.

In the afternoon, a group of students went to the offices of Investment Bank, NatWest Markets at the invitation of their CEO.  There they were introduced to two economists who discussed details of their work.  Joann Spadigam is a strategist working predominantly with the trading business and their clients, whilst Aastha Gupta is a European Economist focused on research for the Capital Markets clients of the bank.  This was an engaging and interactive session which showed students how Economics works in the private sector and the key role the economists played in encouraging client activity.  Joann and Aastha also shared some of their recent research reports with the students.

There were many takeaways from the day, but at a time when there is a shortage of female economists, Women economists underrepresented ‘at every level’ in UK academia – report | University of Cambridge, it was interesting and inspiring to see that three of our four presenters were female and also to note the gender balance in our Year 12 Economics cohort where we have almost a perfect 50:50 gender split.

Megan G, 12 Ludgate said, “The trip was really interesting and engaging. It was great to explore the different pathways in which the speakers gained access to the world of finance,” whilst classmate Lucy T, 12 Walbrook added, “The trip to the Bank of England was a fascinating experience and related to our in class learning for Macroeconomics.  Both the presentation and being able to look around the museum deepened my understanding about topics we have previously learnt."