- ESSEC will commit at least 2,000 volunteering hours as part of the students’ curriculum
- A case study will be co-developed by ESSEC and NVPC to examine the impact, success factors and best practices of the volunteering initiative to share and better equip corporates looking to embark on similar projects
SINGAPORE, 11 December 2024 – The National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ESSEC Business School, to support ESSEC’s efforts to deepen their social impact in Singapore in support of SG60. ESSEC will also be commemorating the school’s 20th anniversary next year.
ESSEC will commit at least 2,000 service- and skill-based volunteering hours and leverage NVPC expertise and connections to work with non-profits such as FaithActs, who is the operator of SG Cares Volunteer Centre @ Queenstown, through a combination of service-based and skills-based volunteering programmes.
With 2,000 volunteering hours committed and more than 500 students, alumni, faculty and staff members involved, this represents ESSEC’s largest volunteerism effort since it was established in Singapore in 2005. The initiative is a strong signal of ESSEC’s commitment to community building efforts in Singapore. Together with NVPC, the school will also be conducting a joint study to examine the impact and success factors of the volunteering initiative.
Nurturing the Next Generation of Business Leaders through Volunteerism
Founded with the mission to “infuse leadership with meaning”, ESSEC Business School actively encourages its students and community to embrace responsibility, inclusiveness, and respect for the environment and society. The school is guided by its purpose to enlighten, lead and change organisations and leaders towards positive impact across the world, which aligns closely with NVPC’s Corporate Purpose framework.
Through this corporate volunteerism initiative, ESSEC hopes to further expand and deepen their positive impact in Singapore and the surrounding community.
The corporate volunteerism plan will be conducted in two phases:
- Phase 1: Service-based volunteering from January to December 2025 by ESSEC faculty, staff, students and alumni to support children-centric programmes such as Homework, Cooking and Activity Time under FaithActs’s Learning Hub and Junior Chef programme.
- Phase 2: Service- and Skill-based volunteering by ESSEC students via two programmes:
- A four-week Field Work Experience in June 2025, where students will fulfil a minimum of 35 volunteer hours per week over four continuous weeks, involving hands-on volunteering service working directly with the beneficiaries as part of the curriculum. The skill sets of students will be matched to the needs of the charities.
- A six-week Junior Consultant Experience from October to mid-December 2025, under the Junior Consultant Experience. Students will contribute their skills to diagnose business problems that FaithActs and/or its SSAs face in areas such as fundraising and talent attraction, retention and development, and provide actionable solutions.
Vincenzo Vinzi, Dean and President of ESSEC, said: “At ESSEC Business School, we are committed to fostering a culture of active community engagement and social responsibility. We want to inspire leaders who drive positive change. Through our collaboration with NVPC, we aim to deepen our impact by exploring innovative approaches to corporate volunteerism, particularly around skills-based volunteering. This partnership aligns with our vision of being a school with a global footprint and locally embedded campus, with an ESSEC community united in its diversity, inclusivity and commitment.”
Case Study on ESSEC’s Corporate Volunteerism
Building on the efforts of the volunteerism initiative, the ESSEC-NVPC joint study will examine success factors and challenges faced in executing a large-scale, sustained and skills-based volunteering programme. The study aims to equip organisations looking to embark on similar corporate volunteering projects with practical and actionable insights to help them increase the chances of impactful and sustained volunteerism initiatives. More details of the study will be announced after the conclusion of the volunteerism programme at the end of 2025.
Tony Soh, CEO of NVPC, said: “NVPC’s MOU with ESSEC Business School represents a strategic and significant step in embedding the Corporate Purpose mindset within the business community in Singapore and beyond. By collaborating with institutes of higher learning such as ESSEC, we are nurturing the next generation of leaders who embrace a culture of purpose-driven business excellence, and fostering a deeper commitment to societal contributions among our business leaders of tomorrow. Through such partnerships, we hope to inspire more organisations and individuals towards purpose-driven impact, utilising their assets, skills and talents to contribute to a more caring, inclusive, and compassionate society.”
