How Small and Medium Sized Businesses can Partner with Schools - Business in the Community

How Small and Medium Sized Businesses can Partner with Schools

This factsheet offers valuable advice to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) on how and why to engage with schools.

This factsheet, Advice to Small and Medium sized Businesses on Partnering with Schools, offers valuable advice on the mutual benefits available to both parties.

Business in the Community’s (BITC) mission is for business to play its part so that every young person, particularly those facing social disadvantage, achieves in education, leading to a successful working life, thriving in business.

Communities that are thriving, socially and economically – working collectively for a meaningful, shared outcome.

Business in the Community’s (BITC) Place Programme is about bringing everyone together in a place to act collaboratively. To act on long-term goals, based on a common agreement of the challenges, opportunities and solutions and drawing on the strengths of everyone in that community, whether they are a business, a community organisation or from the public sector. Business partnering with schools is a key success driver.

Our mission

To facilitate meaningful connections between businesses, communities, and local councils to reset economic ambitions and collaborate on new, innovative solutions that will deliver long-term, transformative impact.

Find out more about Business in the Community’s work on place

Creating meaningful employment is one of the most significant ways that businesses can contribute to the livelihoods of individuals and communities and is, for many the only sustainable route out of poverty.

Offering quality work experience, adopting inclusive approaches to recruitment, and breaking down barriers to entering work for people from disadvantaged groups can benefit businesses by helping them tackle skills shortages, build new talent pipelines, boost retention rates and achieve higher productivity.

    Our employment agenda to create meaningful employment

    Our campaigns harness the collective power of businesses to overcome disadvantages by increasing access to good, sustainable, and meaningful employment.

    Our work is organised around Inspire, Hire, Grow, Business in the Community’s (BITC’s) Employment Framework. Originally developed to support our work on youth employment, it was subsequently broadened out to help businesses think more strategically about their jobs and skills offer.

    The Framework identifies three distinct stages:

    • Inspire: pre-employment support
    • Hire: removing barriers in recruitment processes
    • Grow: in-work support.

    This concept provides a broad overview of interventions that support disadvantaged groups into sustainable, good work.

    Find out more about the Essential Skills campaign

    Find out more about Business in the Community’s work on
    Employment and Skills.