Business students offer free consulting to local charities
Business management students from a private college will study problems faced by local charities and give them advice on how to raise funds and retain talent – all for free.
This “junior consultant experience” will involve around 50 students, who will be graded on their performance, from Essec Business School’s Master in Management programme.
The six-week scheme is part of a new corporate volunteerism initiative by the school and the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC).
“This is very valuable to the charity partners, because they may not have access to these kinds of expertise,” said Ms Lin Sufei, director of corporate and industry partnerships at NVPC.
Under an agreement signed on Dec 11, Essec will also do hands-on and skills-based volunteering with children and youth.
It will commit to at least 2,000 volunteering hours and rope in more than 500 students, alumni and staff. This is the school’s largest volunteer effort since it was set up here in 2005.
NVPC will guide Essec’s efforts and track volunteering outcomes. Both organisations will then study corporate volunteerism – especially skills-based volunteering, which refers to professionals using their talents, experience and resources to help social service agencies.
The study is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2026. It will look at how best to implement such corporate volunteering programmes.
For example, one question it hopes to answer is what attracts company employees as volunteers and keeps them coming back.
“NVPC works with companies to identify suitable skill sets to support charities in strengthening their capabilities for further growth,” Ms Lin said.
She added that Essec is the first overseas education partner that has made such a commitment. The school has campuses in Singapore, France and Morocco.
One of the charities students will work with is FaithActs in Queenstown, which supports children with learning difficulties, youth at risk, disadvantaged families and seniors with challenging needs. FaithActs is also the operator of the area’s SG Cares Volunteer Centre, which manages volunteers and fosters partnerships.
Every month in the coming year, Essec volunteers will support FaithActs’ programmes, such as an after-school educational programme for primary school students, and cooking lessons for youth.
Five to 10 Bachelor of Business Administration students can also sign up for field work experience. They will have to fulfil a minimum of 35 volunteer hours per week over four continuous weeks, working directly with beneficiaries as part of their curriculum.
This will take place in June 2025, while the junior consultant experience will run from October to mid-December 2025.
Ms Anne-Claire Pache, associate dean for global strategy and sustainability at Essec Business School in France, said the school’s aim is to make its regional campuses “very strongly connected and embedded in our local communities”.
“And there’s no better way to be strongly globally embedded than by engaging through volunteering with the social needs and the social organisations that are located in these communities,” she said.
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