KPMG – Supporting the development of social entrepreneurship in university students

KPMGYear:

2013

 

Company Description:

KPMG is a leading provider of professional services in Ireland. Our firm has 78 partners and 1800 people in offices in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Belfast.  We provide clients in all sectors of Irish business with a range of Audit, Tax and Advisory services.  The cornerstones of our business are quality of advice, quality of service and quality of our people.

 

Business Issue:

KPMG wished to encourage university students to develop their social entrepreneurial skills so that they would have a positive impact on their local communities.  Supporting the development of entrepreneurship is central to KPMG’s long term business and sustainability objectives.

 

Solution Applied

KPMG established Enactus Ireland – a registered charity whose annual highlight is an entrepreneurship competition that:

  • supports students’ personal development
  • showcases their skills to business
  • develops students’ social awareness and their solutions for social and environmental issues
  • utilises students’ academic learning in real-life
  • potentially offers the prestige of being crowned the Enactus Ireland winner and representing the best Irish talent at a global competition.

This initiative brings together the business leaders of today working with the business leaders of tomorrow.  KPMG enlisted the support of corporate partners: KBC Bank, AIG, Arthur Cox, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Unilever, The Musgrave Group and The Ireland Funds.  Gibney Communications and The Irish Times also support Enactus Ireland as Communications Partners.
Company Benefits:

Supporting the development of entrepreneurship is central to KPMG’s long term business and sustainability objectives and introduces the company to university students.

 

Stakeholder Benefits:

Being a participating student helps develop a range of skills such as leadership, project management, interpersonal skills and budgeting.  KPMG provides a bursary award for two students from each of the six universities that do not win to travel to the Enactus World Cup competition being held in Mexico in September 2013, Beijing in 2014 and South Africa in 2015.

In 2012/13 all seven universities participated with 128 students and 21 university staff working on 21 community projects.  This academic year the total number of volunteer hours is on target to more than double.  The aim is to improve the quality of life and standard of living of people in need by empowering and partnering with those who are in need. 

The Dublin City University team mobilised the student population to develop a programme to break down the barriers to education that children in the Ballymun area are faced with.

The Trinity College Dublin students developed a system for diverting food from landfill to those who are in need and they worked closely with the homeless services to transfer skills and knowledge to those at-risk of becoming homeless.

According to one of the winning DCU students who went to the Enactus World Cup in Washington in September 2012,

“This was the best experience of my life, I got to represent my country at an international competition and got to meet so many amazing people and hear about the exciting projects they are doing around the world.  I feel so energised and engaged going back to DCU and I can’t wait to get involved in more projects that positively impact people’s lives.”

 

Solution Champion

Karina Howley, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility.  Email: Karina.howley@kpmg.ie