Over the summer a group of mentees were given the opportunity to gain work experience at the UK’s leading AI powered digital advice platform, Dynamic Planner. During the work experience which lasted a month, the young people aged 18 - 21 got a real life taste of working at a major international organisation.
About Dynamic Planner
Dynamic Planner is the UK's leading AI-powered digital advice platform used by financial advisers and wealth managers to risk-profile clients and match them with suitable investment portfolios.
Value of work experience
During the work experience, mentees rotated across various departments, including HR, Marketing, Development, and Data & Analytics. Taking a holistic approach, the programme matched participants to roles aligning with their interests and skills, while also introducing them to new, unexplored career pathways. In total, the mentees completed 140 hours of hands-on work experience.
Many of the young people who participated in the work experience are currently in further or higher education, providing them with a valuable opportunity to apply their academic knowledge to real-world scenarios.
Research has revealed that young people who have had four or more encounters with employers are 86% less likely to become NEET (not in education, employment or training), further highlighting the importance of work experience programmes provided by Urban Synergy. Data has also revealed that those same young people are 18% more likely to earn more in their career of choice.
Impact of work experience on mentees
Imanuel, 20, student said: “ The experience bridged the gap between university and industry. I came in knowing programming theory but had never applied it in a real team with real deadlines and real consequences. I now understand how software is actually built and shipped in a professional environment.”
He added: “ I came in focused purely on software development, but seeing the Product Development team's work made product management genuinely interesting to me. I hadn't considered roles that sit between the customer and the engineering team before this.”
What was the experience like for the young people
Spending almost a month working in the country’s biggest digital advice platform, the young people were left inspired, motivated and most importantly focussed on what they want to do in the future.
Reflecting on the impact of the work experience, Rhea, 19, said: “Every session was incredibly helpful, I don’t think I can choose the best because it was all relevant to my objectives.
“The team set me up with really interesting projects and others helped me develop a commercial understanding. I have been able to explore different career paths that I definitely didn’t think of last year. After seeing the asset management risk profiling this has increased my interest in risk and investment services and is definitely an area I am keen to explore.”
Chacha, 21, added: “I would like to work in Marketing but specifically my interest in digital marketing and marketing campaigns has increased.
By providing hands-on opportunities and exposure to diverse industries, programmes like these continue to empower young people to unlock their potential and confidently navigate their future career pathways.
Key Departments & Practical Skill Development
- Software Engineering & Product Management: Mentees gained practical experience with live production debugging, version control using Git, and navigating professional API documentation. They participated in full Agile sprint cycles (standups, planning, demos, retrospectives) with the Integrations team and explored product management roles bridging customer requirements and engineering.
- Data Analytics & Financial Modelling: Mentees learned to transform raw datasets into interactive visual dashboards using Power BI and SQL. Participants also explored quantitative finance, actuarial science, asset management risk profiling, and the links between behavioural psychology and mathematics.
- Digital Marketing & Content Creation: Mentees worked on digital marketing campaigns, generated short-form content, and compiled structured competitor research notes.
- Fintech & AI Utilisation: Placements provided direct insight into how AI tools are actively integrated into modern Fintech workflows.
Read more about the work of Urban Synergy, including our mentoring programmes, work experience placements and upcoming 20th anniversary celebrations.