NVPC, Essec Business School ink MOU to ramp up corporate volunteering efforts
Students will embark on both service and skills-based programmes
THE National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) and Essec Business School have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to ramp up corporate volunteerism in the community.
Under the partnership, Essec will commit to at least 2,000 hours of service and skills-based volunteering and leverage NVPC’s expertise and connections. More than 500 students, alumni, faculty and staff members will be involved in what is Essec’s largest volunteerism effort since it launched in Singapore in 2005, said NVPC on Wednesday (Dec 11).
The business school will collaborate with non-profit organisations such as FaithActs, which operates the SG Cares Volunteer Centre @ Queenstown and works with children with learning difficulties, youth at risk, and disadvantaged families and seniors in the vicinity.
Dr Vincenzo Vinzi, dean and president of Essec Business School, said: “Through these volunteering opportunities, we hope to nurture the next generation of leaders to see that the skills they learnt and the competencies they developed during their journey with us can be extended to make a positive impact on the community as well, aside from developing their careers.”
Different ways to contribute
Essec’s service-based volunteering will take place via two programmes.
Under the first one, which will run from January to December next year, Essec faculty, staff, students and alumni will support FaithActs’ children-centric programmes – assisting with homework, cooking and other activities.
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The second one is a fieldwork experience programme in June, in which students will fulfil a minimum of 35 volunteer hours a week over the course of four consecutive weeks.
Meanwhile, Essec’s skills-based volunteering will be conducted via a six-week Junior Consultant Experience from October to mid-December 2025.
Tony Soh, chief executive of NVPC, said: “Both service-based and skills-based volunteering are critical to support community needs, though the latter tends to require a higher level of commitment and expertise, with more ambitious and impactful outcomes.”
Under this programme, students will contribute their skills and advise FaithActs and/or its social service agencies to solve business problems in areas such as fundraising and talent attraction, retention and development. They will help to provide “actionable solutions”, added Soh.
Dr Vinzi noted: “Through their interactions with the beneficiary organisations, the students will have real-life experience in applying their knowledge and skills to benefit the community, true to our value of humanism and responsibility, and our transdisciplinary approach.”
On the programme being a long-term volunteering initiative, Soh said: “Apart from building lasting relationships with those they serve, sustained volunteering also helps volunteers to develop essential skills, such as leadership and teamwork. This in turn enhances their sense of engagement and belonging to the organisation and enables them to take on greater responsibilities.”
Joint study in the works
NVPC and Essec are also conducting a joint study that will examine success factors and challenges when executing a large-scale, sustained and skills-based volunteering programme.
It aims to provide insights to companies that want to undertake similar corporate volunteering projects to “help them increase the chances of impactful and sustained volunteerism initiatives”, said NVPC.
Soh added: “This study will look at three areas: how skills-based volunteering differs from traditional service volunteering; what attracts and sustains employees to be engaged as volunteers; and obstacles and success factors of implementing skills-based volunteering in companies.”
More details about the study will be released after the completion of Essec’s corporate volunteering efforts next year.
“There is growing evidence that demonstrates how volunteering promotes employee engagement and retention as employees feel more fulfilled, strengthen their bonds with colleagues and feel a stronger sense of purpose,” he said.
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