KPMG take action on literacy
KPMG is working to boost literacy levels as part of the Vision for Literacy Business Pledge.
In this guest blog, Jenny Baskerville, Senior Manager, Corporate Responsibility at KPMG shares an update on KPMG’s initiatives to help boost literacy levels, as part of their work to fulfil the Vision for Literacy Business Pledge 2016.
KPMG demonstrated a public commitment to improving literacy levels across the country when it became key corporate partner and first signatory to the National Literacy Forum’s Vision for Literacy Business Pledge 2016. The firm has engaged its people, taken action in the community and contributed to national interventions in order to maximise its impact on poor literacy.
World Book Day marked the launch of our multiple employee interventions on literacy. The London office hosted reading clubs for local primary school children and colleagues volunteered to partner with students to read their favourite books with the students thoroughly enjoying one-to-one reading time.
KPMG’s Head of Tax, Pensions and Legal Services gave a brief talk to the students on the importance of reading for pleasure and volunteers whisked the students on an office tour to broaden their understanding of the workplace and highlight the importance of literacy in day-to-day working life. World Book Day also gave colleagues the opportunity to hunt for Where’s Wally? as he made appearances in offices across the country! Updates on Wally’s whereabouts were shared on internal and external social media and colleagues from across the country were really engaged in the campaign.
Employees up and down the country have also been given access to Book Hives. These areas to exchange books are in 11 offices and encourage employees to participate in free book swaps and inspire one another through literature. Our workforce have also donated generously to a book drive for children’s books which ran throughout March. Children’s books were collected for local primary schools with whom the firm runs reading partner programmes, thereby strengthening these relationships as well as adding value to the young people.
KPMG has increased the breadth of its reading partner programmes with primary schools already supported in London, Leeds, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. In addition, teams have worked hard to forge new primary school relationships in Manchester, Reading, Milton Keynes, London and Bristol. Reading partner schemes are now kicking off with the new relationships and colleagues have been hugely supportive in signing up to volunteer with over 200 responses to a pledge for regular reading partner support.
Debate Mate, the internationally renowned debating charity, focuses on improving the speaking and listening aspects of young people’s literacy. We have been working closely with Debate Mate to deliver a training programme to students at KPMG’s London sponsor school The City Academy, Hackney. The entire Year 8 cohort of 183 students are undergoing rigorous preparation for a debating competition at the end of the year, supported by KPMG volunteers. The firm has also hosted competition debates for 42 primary school students in the local area, with our volunteers wowed by their oracy prowess! KPMG and Debate Mate are also delivering training to students at a partner school in Manchester, and following these pilot programmes the firm is planning a larger rollout of debating volunteering next year.
We are also continuing to support our sponsor school, The City Academy, Hackney, with subject tutoring. Literacy-based subjects feature heavily on this programme and 44 volunteers build long-standing relationships with students, mentoring them through academic qualifications to ensure they fulfil their potential.
At the national level, a collaborative piece of research on behalf of the Literacy APPG is currently being developed. The APPG are keen to expose areas of particularly low literacy, as well as solutions to this through local level interventions. The outcomes of the research will be shared with local area leaders to put successful interventions into practice.
To document all of these great interventions KPMG colleagues are avid users of social media to publicise action on the Vision for Literacy Business Pledge and share updates on the national campaign. This helps make our national clients and partners aware of the hugely valuable work done on literacy. In addition, KPMG’s Social Mobility Business Compact Champion status was confirmed in March. This is a clear indication to the national education community of our public commitment to ensuring young people fulfil their potential. The firm’s action on literacy is a key pillar in this social mobility strategy, and tackling poor literacy through working with employees, the community and national bodies is clear evidence of this.
Originally published at www.literacytrust.org.uk.
