Charityworks is the UK non-profit sector’s graduate scheme.
Designed to be accessible to non-profit organisations regardless of size, profile, or activity, Charityworks is a proven, affordable way to find and develop brilliant graduate talent for your organisation.
A unified brand, nationwide recruitment campaign, and a first class selection process combine to give participating organisations access to a higher level of talent than they could attract individually, at a fraction of the cost of running a comparable scheme themselves.
The level of talent on offer, combined with the support and development offered by the Charityworks programme, means that participating organisations should see an immediate return on their investment as well as high quality performance throughout the year.
Why We Exist
Charityworks’ aim is to support the development of a non-profit sector better able to serve the people, causes and communities that rely on it.
In a challenging political and economic landscape, and in the face of increasingly complex social issues, Charityworks believe the non-profit sector’s success will depend on talented and committed people using their time and talent in the pursuit of social change. To this end, Charityworks’ provides a model which enables high potential graduates to develop their careers in the sector, at the same time as providing any non-profit organisation with a cost-effective way of recruiting and developing talented graduates.
In 2022/23 will offer 150 graduate placements at organisations across the country as part of the programme.
To read more about our story click here.
Any non-profit employer can talk to us about hosting a trainee in their organisation. Whether you are a senior leader, looking at the programme from a HR or OD perspective, or a manager looking to fill a vacancy, the Charityworks team will support you to work out where and how you might make the most of the programme.
Recruitment
Each year Charityworks is promoted to all UK universities via a nationwide recruitment campaign which reaches tens of thousands of students and graduates. This campaign is designed to raise the profile of the programme, the sector and our partners, and to attract talented people to apply. In 2021, we received over 5500 applications to the programme from socially minded graduates and were for the fourth consecutive year acknowledged by graduates as a Times Top 100 Graduate Employer.
Selection & Placement
All applicants to Charityworks go through a comprehensive selection process designed to find the most capable and high potential candidates. This process, modelled on first-class graduate schemes across all sectors, includes a variety of online and in-person assessments, and is open for any client to be involved in. Following that process, the Charityworks team will work with you and the highest-scoring candidates to match the most appropriate candidate to the placements in your organisation.
The Year
Starting in September each year, Charityworks Graduate Trainees spend 12 months in your organisation in a full time paid role. During this time they will focus primarily on their role for you, as well as taking part in an ILM-endorsed leadership programme, meeting a mentor, taking part in facilitated learning sessions, peer coaching and producing research to bring new ideas into your organisation. Charityworks’ role in the placement is to support and challenge the trainee, to measure their impact, and to support you and your team where appropriate through our programme team.
Impact & Value
Throughout the 12-months your organisation benefits from a talented and motivated employee capable of creating immediate impact and delivering throughout the year. As some of the most capable graduates in the UK, our trainees deliver to an extremely high standard from day one and just as importantly, are driven and committed to the cause and mission of your organisation. As well as producing excellent work, they bring fresh perspectives and enhance organisations through their network of support on the programme. At the end of the year, hosts can decide to offer their trainee(s) a job, and many do, but there is no commitment to do so.
The key strengths of Charityworks lie in its affordability and its flexibility, with the model allowing organisations to bring graduate talent into their organisation wherever, and in whatever way, suits them best.
For example, over the past 10 years organisations have participated in the programme with the objective of:
- Attracting highly qualified and competent staff into the workforce
- Recruiting fresh talent into their organisation, or a particular part of the organisation
- Competing more effectively in an intensely competitive graduate recruitment market
- Seeing an immediate return on their investment in talent
- Diversifying their workforce
- Making a cost saving on filling particular roles
- Enhancing their networks throughout the non-profit sector
- Improving the quality of line management in their organisation
If any or all of those objectives sound relevant to your organisation, Charityworks can help.
Charityworks is open to any non-profit organisation. We have placed trainees into organisations of every type, scope and scale in the UK: from large national organisations to small local, from social enterprises to charities, from membership organisations to housing associations, from Cornwall to Scotland. Hear from James Glover, Head of HR & Organisational Development at Mind and Vicky Hemming, former People Director at Action on Hearing Loss & Leonard Cheshire Disability below:
We’ve collated a number of case studies from across the wide range of organisations that we work with, and grouped them so that you can find out from organisations similar to yours. This isn’t an exhaustive list of our partners, and we have plenty more case studies to come, but you can view the following by clicking the links below:
- Charityworks and Social Housing
- Charityworks and Health, Disability & Social Care
- Charityworks and Hospices
- Charityworks and the Charity Sector
- Charityworks and Student Unions
- Charityworks and Roles in Fundraising
- Charityworks in the North West
- Charityworks in Scotland
- Charityworks General Case Studies
Charityworks is designed to foster connections across organisations and disciplines, and the value of those relationships is consistently identified by our partners and participants as one of the most valuable aspects of the programme. Our partners past and present have included the following organisations:
If you’re interested in hearing more about joining Charityworks and hosting a trainee contact Craig at craig@charity-works.co.uk. call 0203 620 5252, fill in the ‘Express Your Interest’ form, or click here.
Speak to us
To download the 2017/18 Charityworks brochure, click the image below:
