Cass Business School and Sir John Cass’s Foundation launch interim report on Schools Engagement Programme

Cass Business School and Sir John Cass’s Foundation have supported 415 secondary school and university students through a unique mentoring programme established in August 2015, according to an interim report authored by the Director of the Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness Professor Paul Palmer.

The School Engagement Project — a five-year modern philanthropic partnership — sees Cass Business School students mentoring young Londoners in disadvantaged communities, giving life-changing support, raising aspiration and supporting their academic attainment.

The mentoring aspect of the project - which forms a part of Cass students' formally accredited degree program - is without equal at any other business school in the world.

More than 150 mentors have supported GCSE-level and A-level students in four disadvantaged areas of London as well as helping first-year university students transition into higher education.

The programme’s mentors and coaches target academic attainment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) and assist with critical career and study decisions.

The ground-breaking programme is now mid-way through a five-year matched-funded cycle; an interim report on its progress details the evolution of the programme, delivers insights on its successes and presents findings from the initial evaluation period.

This is the first stage of a toolkit that is already inspiring and engaging other Higher Education institutions in the UK and across the global Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) community.

“This report marks the first stage in formally sharing this learning more widely and invites other institutions and stakeholders engage with it. This includes businesses working with schools, local and national politicians and non-profit organisations working to connect across sectors,” said report author Professor Paul Palmer.

“As a research institution, Cass Business School is committed to demonstrating the long-term value of the programme for society and business.

“The School Engagement Project believes that this approach has the potential to transform the role of Higher Education Institutions as a bridge between school and work to raise aspiration, help young people make the right choices and to support them at university and into fulfilling work.”

The project is already engaging with PRME Champion partners to replicate and grow the scale of the programme, in particular at Nottingham Business School (Nottingham Trent University, UK) and ZHAW School of Management and Law (Winterthur, Switzerland) but is calling out to other potential partners involved in education and connecting with disadvantaged communities to find ways to share and replicate learning from the project.