Does your company invest in, directly participate in, or otherwise support, any education in the community?

Rationale for question

There is increasing recognition that as education creates resourceful and prosperous communities it is also good for business within those communities. Beyond imparting valuable knowledge and skills, education can increase the self-esteem of an individual, improve their quality of life and open up new opportunities to them. Depending on the form of the investment, business benefits of involvement within the community may include building relationships with local institutions and programmes, promoting staff development and satisfaction, and developing skills in individuals, for example, that would make them more flexible in the workplace and employable after unemployment.

Business in the Community describes numerous ways in which companies can invest in education, such as cash support of organisations offering instruction, sponsorship of programmes, donations of equipment and products, provision of staff time and expertise and work-experience or other training schemes. For example, some companies operate in-house tutoring schemes and others sponsor community centres with educational programmes. Investment may be in adult education as well as youth schemes.

Companies may also contribute specifically to consumer education. For example, the National Consumer Council, a UK non-profit consumer policy and research organisation, identified a consumer skills deficit in Britain meaning that 22% of consumers do not understand the different types of mortgages available. By educating consumers, companies can provide them with the skills to effectively evaluate goods and services in the marketplace.

Although there are often strong marketing elements in community education projects undertaken by businesses, many companies are able to successfully balance these two aspects and meet social, environmental and ethical objectives.

Defining Terms

A 'community' should be a restricted geographic area in which the company also has operations. There is no defined radius for a community; it could be a town or city, section of a town or city or neighbouring villages and towns. For example, a sparsely populated region may consider a wider geographic area to be a community.

The question is designed to determine whether companies support education in the communities in which they operate. Companies may describe any participation they have in education projects in other communities, e.g. overseas, but this alone may not constitute a YES answer.

Primary and Secondary answer requirements

ANSWERING YES

Companies must:

confirm that they provide support for educational activities more than just occasionally in a community where they operate;
describe how they support education in the community; and
describe the educational benefits of their efforts.

Companies may:

acknowledge and outline any marketing/publicity pay off of this support, should it exist; and
describe how they support education outside the communities in which they operate.

ANSWERING NO

Companies must:

explain why they do not or cannot answer YES to this question, listing the business reasons, any mitigating circumstances or other reasons that apply.

Companies may:

list any activities that are relevant, but not sufficient to answer YES; and
mention any future intentions regarding this issue.

DON'T KNOW is not a permissible answer to this question.

NOT APPLICABLE is not a permissible answer to this question.

NO ANSWER YET is only permissible under extraordinary circumstances and then for only a limited period.

Societás

YES

Societás works with several leading higher education establishments, including the University of Salford, The University of The Arts, Central Saint Martins and the American Intercontinental University in London on a myriad of initiatives to create opportunities for undergraduates, graduates and postgraduates.

We also work closely with many industry bodies concerned with education and knowledge sharing and we run two, soon to be three awards initiatives that enable learning and career progression for emerging stars of the creative industries. To view an example of an awards project we run visit the Iconique Societás Awards.

However, we are not only focused on locally-based community education initiatives. The nature of the industries we directly work with is international and we are equally as interested in creating opportunity for talented individuals based in other countries and continents, as we are in creating opportunities for those living on our doorstep.

SEE Questionnaire Summary

Business Introduction

Business Information

Goods and Services

Business Responses

Community

Societás

YES

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