Over the summer, Social Value Portal hosted two work experience students who were keen to experience working within a business environment, but were also passionate about working for a purpose.
Megan and Grace are studying Business and Marketing at university, and so were placed working within our Sales team, Marketing team and Consultancy team, to find out what it’s like working day to day within our business.
Here’s what they had to say about their experiences and how they worked to understand what social value and the National TOMs are all about.
My experience at Social Value Portal by Megan Crane
On arrival at Social Value Portal, I had little knowledge of the meaning social value. After being made aware of the importance it plays within businesses and the economy today, I was shocked I wasn’t educated on it sooner. Social Value Portal to me, is an organisation that has a positive outlook on how companies prioritise and integrate social value within their daily activities.
From arrival at the office, it was evident that the workforce has a strong ethos to ensure that they are improving social value nationally, which is reflected in their aim to deliver £100 billion of social value by 2025.
Work experience at Social Value Portal has offered me the ability to access valuable knowledge that is especially relevant to my Business Marketing degree. It provided me the opportunity to contribute ideas in staff meetings, such as how to improve social engagement and how the structure of the organisation works through the National TOMs framework. It has given me a real insight into the upcoming success of a business.
Seeing how the team communicates and how they collaborate to make a real difference within the economy, not only inspires me as a student, but also as a young woman in the workplace.
Working at Social Value Portal by Grace Wood
Being offered the opportunity to work with Social Value Portal, especially due to the relevance and integration of social value within businesses as a reflection of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, posed as a great foundation for work experience as a Gen Z student.
Social Value Portal to me, represents a company that not only embeds positivity and innovation by giving back to the economy and communities that they work with, but also one that exerts genuine passion and aspiration to make a favourable difference to society.
For example, the National TOMs Framework is used within the business to act as a ‘social value currency’, a measurement created by ‘Social Value Portal’ to quantify a business’ social value. This framework considers acts of service, represented through things like volunteering. Through these measurements, each act of service stands for a different proxy value, for example, giving careers advice has a ‘proxy value of £105’. So if an audience of 5 people did 2 hours of careers advice, they would already generate a social value of £1,000. This is something Social Value Portal aids businesses with to improve their reputation through giving back to society.
Through working closely with the Head of Marketing of Social Value Portal, I was also made aware of the goals set within the business, such as the aim to achieve £100 billion worth of social value by 2025, and the positive impact this would have on society. Another goal includes growing the business internationally, and the rapid growth of Social Value Portal is a representation of the drive within the business, something which inspires me. Being a young student studying a Business Management degree, the social value environment is extremely important and applicable to myself, so naturally, the values of the business aligned to the values I withhold as important.
