Our community programme has three main objectives:

• To create opportunities for employee volunteering and community involvement
• To support and encourage employees involved in volunteering initiatives
• To provide a measurable benefit to the communities in which Education is present

Volunteering
Each year, thousands of Education staff around the world participate in volunteering and community activities.  Employees donate their time and skills to work on projects in their local communities.

In 2004, in our offices across Europe, more than 150 projects took place over four weekends in October.  These ranged from tea parties for the elderly, renovation, conservation and environmental projects, preparing meals for homeless people, hosting workshops on CV writing and interviewing techniques for jobless teenagers and running events for disadvantaged or disabled children.

All the projects are designed with a long-term commitment in mind and teams of volunteers from Education often return each year.  Participating in these activities gives our employees valuable project management experience as well as developing their teamworking skills and the opportunity to network with people from across the firm.  It offers junior employees a chance to demonstrate their leadership skills by volunteering to become a team captain and managing one of these projects.

Education School Mentoring Programme
The programme started over seven years ago at two primary schools in the London Borough of Hackney.  It has developed over the past two years to include three secondary schools as well as a relationship with the African Caribbean Diversity (ACDiversity), which is a mentoring programme for gifted and talented young people from an African/Caribbean background.

Each week over 100 employees visit the two original primary schools during their lunch hour to offer reading assistance to pupils who may have fallen behind national standards.  They also provide extra practice in maths to pupils who are considered high achievers.

The secondary school programme offers Year 10 students the chance to have a business mentor for two years to assist with school work and personal development, as well as gaining first-hand knowledge of an investment bank. 

As part of our relationship with ACDiversity, Education employees become mentors to assist with career and personal development over a two year period and, very importantly, to encourage the children onto further education.