Three ideas to improve diversity and inclusion in the legal profession were chosen as the winning entries at Legal Week's second LegalTalent contest last month.

The Dragons' Den-style competition – which aims to tap into new thinking on how law firms can embrace and retain young, talented employees – this year welcomed pitches from both students and associates.

The competition took place at the LegalWeek CONNECT event on 29 November at County Hall London, with pitches judged by a senior panel comprising KPMG UK GC Jeremy Barton, ITV group legal director Andrew Garard, Diageo GC Siobhan Moriarty and Legal Week publishing director John Malpas.

The winners, who received prizes including £2,000, one year's subscription to all ALM brands and an invitation to pitch their idea at a roundtable of managing partners and GCs, were:

➤➤ Law and business undergraduates Christelle Kazumba and Ahamefula Chigazu Kamalu's 'Reaching Out' project, which aims to make vacation schemes, placements and training contracts more accessible to students from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds.

Christelle and Ahamefula commented: "We are very grateful for this wonderful opportunity to present our pitch to the judges and we also feel proud of ourselves for going all the way to London to pitch an idea that we're very passionate about – which was ensuring that law students are given the university experience that they rightfully deserve and nothing less."

➤➤ A new app – 'Aspire Legal' – targeted at 15-18-year-olds from underprivileged backgrounds to engage their interest in law and highlight the skills required to pursue a legal career. The app is the brainchild of a team of trainees from Howard Kennedy – Charlotte Colthurst, Charlotte Towerton, Josh Page, Owen Griffiths and Jessica Rush.

The Howard Kennedy team said: "We thoroughly enjoyed coming up with an idea to foster greater diversity and inclusion in the legal sector – hopefully the industry will listen and adopt practices that will engage a wider demographic of teenagers and encourage those who believe a legal career is out of their reach, [to see] that it is in fact an achievable goal."

➤➤ An industry-wide outreach programme devised by Coventry University law students Joy Charles-Nwufoh and Rheanne Williams, which aims to prepare and educate students from low socioeconomic and ethnic minority backgrounds on the realities of the legal profession.

The duo commented: "As black and ethnic minority women, it was inspiring to see first-hand the effort being made to improve diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. It has offered a sense of relief that the profession is trying to adopt a more modern culture."

LegalWeek CONNECT, now in its second year, gathers in-house counsel and law firm partners to discuss issues such as collaboration, diversity and talent.

This year's event was chaired by Crown Estate GC Rob Booth and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner co-chair Lisa Mayhew, and featured a series of set-piece debates on issues such as whether law firms that fail to improve diversity will lose out on work from clients.

Last year's first-ever LegalTalent competition saw Nottingham University law student Queenie Djan and Leigh Day events manager Yolanda Kibuukamusoke take the honours for their 'Lawyer Like Me' scheme, which proposed linking law firms with secondary schools for moots focused on minority students.