Social responsibility at the heart of business learning

Iain Mitchell is Widening Access Manager at Strathclyde with responsibility for the Social Responsibility Pathway which is part of the business school’s Management Development programme (MDP). Here, he takes a look back at the programme overall and the benefits of introducing a CSR pathway.

More than a decade ago, a simple idea took root: could we make social responsibility a lived, credit-bearing part of our Management Development Programme in the Business School rather than an optional extra?

We were always aware that the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) type of experience was both really rewarding and great for developing student employability skills as we had university students work as mentors on our Widening Access outreach programmes. However, the CSR pathway has its roots in 2012-13 when we developed a Leadership programme for Glasgow City Council where Strathclyde University students designed and ran an on-campus event for senior school pupils and then mentored those pupils to run their own event for younger pupils in their school. The aim of this was to work with pupils from more disadvantaged backgrounds and raise their awareness and aspiration with regard to University study.

Around the same time, there were discussions with SBS’ Executive Dean Professor David Hillier, who was very keen to engage students proactively in addressing disadvantage in the local community, as a more formal part of their courses in the Business School. It was a perfect match and that year, as part of the Business School’s Management Development Programme, we had 16 students mentor pupils from four schools on our new Leadership programme. We’re very grateful to David for his vision and commitment to addressing disadvantage. The programme ran very successfully for two years and then, in 2014-15, we took the concept further and the CSR Pathway came into being as a formal part of the 3rd year Management Development Programme, allowing us to set up a whole range of different initiatives for students to work on, with a large number of internal and external partners, giving them experience of work with a positive social dimension in real-life contexts.

Impact of the CSR pathway

We want to help students develop important employability skills - key amongst these are team-working, leadership and communication. We emphasise the benefits of effective communication to students and have seen the incredibly positive effects on their confidence from developing their ability to communicate with a range of different stakeholders.

Beyond the development of practical skills, the pathway allows students to give something back. Students on the pathway also develop their knowledge and understanding of issues that they might not have been aware of previously. This, in turn, drives their motivation to make a difference. Many students have continued to volunteer with organisations that they have been working with once the pathway is complete. Several have gone on to paid roles or long-term employment with these organisations. Many decide that they would like to work in the third sector or in an organisation or business addressing a similar kind of disadvantage. More than this, however, our students develop a social responsibility ethos and take it with them into their future working lives, whatever they decide to do.

Above all, we endeavour to ensure the students find the work enjoyable and rewarding. In these difficult and trying times, where there are a number of stresses that might impact on the mental health of University students, this experience has proven to be very positive for student wellbeing.

Variety of options

It’s important that the options available to our students not only represent a wide range of issues and areas of disadvantage but that the students align with those causes and find the work that they’re doing on the pathway inspiring and rewarding. We also want to have representation from organisations that address issues that will be prevalent and important when our students enter the world of work, such as Modern Day Slavery.

For me, it’s also vital that we have options that focus on sustainability and that we embed it into all work on the pathway. I want our students to feel that they can address sustainable issues in a proactive and positive way that doesn’t make them feel overwhelmed.

Favourite moments

It’s been a privilege to work on the pathway, supporting our students’ development and getting the chance to work with so many remarkable organisations. We’re grateful to all of them for their time and the opportunities that they have offered us. It’s always really exciting to hear that students have continued to work with their CSR Pathway organisations, or in related jobs, post-programme. We recently put together an impact report has allowed us to catch up with some of them and it’s been great to revisit their work and experiences.

The first year of our Strathclyde Christmas Toy Appeal was a big thrill. We didn’t really know what might happen and were absolutely delighted by the response from our Strathclyde community.

The first Breaking Barriers graduation ceremony was also a big moment. We had set up the programme with high hopes but it was the first of its kind in the UK and it was fantastic to see everyone’s hard work come to fruition and watch our first cohort of Breaking Barriers students cross the stage and receive their certificates.

On a simpler level, it was always such a positive when the school pupils who had participated on our tutoring programmes achieved good grades in their exams. It was great to see our students having a direct impact on pupils’ educational outcomes. We’ve been delighted to see several pupils who were mentored and tutored by us going on to become mentors or tutors on the pathway themselves after becoming Strathclyde Business School students.

Another moment that always springs to mind is the launch of the cookbook that our students made for the Glasgow South-East foodbank. So much time and creativity had gone into its production and it was great to see this recognised, with our students even appearing on the evening TV news.

Challenges

It’s always important to get the balance right between developing our students while understanding that their work is happening in the real world and therefore to ensure that there are tangible positive outcomes for the organisations with which we work.

Making sure that all the health and safety precautions have been in place for some of the students’ more exciting fundraising activities has definitely been an interesting experience. Ensuring everything is in place for skydives, bungee jumps and mountain climbs has not been very good for my blood pressure!

Covid was obviously a challenging time, not least when lockdown began to ease and we had to make sure everything was in place for students to return to working in-person with organisations and running events. Up until Covid, we had asked for donations of presents to the Toy Appeal to be dropped off at the University library. In 2020 and 2021, we had to ask for only cash donations with which I bought all the presents online and had delivered to my house. In each of those years, over 1,000 presents were stored in our spare bedroom before I delivered them in-person to our school and charity partners. This led to some interesting questions from my daughters about the true nature of Santa Claus!